Firemen attacked in Gurugram for reaching late to douse flames

Angry residents in Gurugram's DLF Phase -3 attacked fire department officials over delay in reaching the spot where a fire broke out in the early hours of Friday.

Three firemen sustained injuries in the attack by the locals who alleged the firemen reached the spot more than an hour after informing the police.

"An electric transformer caught fire around 1 am in our area. We called the police but did not get any response from either the fire brigade department or the police", alleged Priyanka, a resident.

Fire officials, however, maintain that the delay could have been possibly caused as the residents first approached the police instead of calling in for fire tenders.

"They called the police, instead of calling us. People can directly call us on 101. But if anyone dials 101 from the DLF area, it connects to Delhi. That may have caused the delay," said Isham Singh Kashyap, District Fire Officer.

Explaining the chain of events, the officer said: "We got the information from the police around 1: 44 am about a fire in Sikanderpur village. A driver and three firemen were sent to the spot. When they saw the scale of the fire, they demanded another fire tender. Around 90 per cent fire was doused off. Meanwhile, some people started mishandling our people and snatched the keys of the fire tenders. We called the police and the fire was doused off in police protection."

The firemen, who got injured in the attack, have been identified as Sahun, Kapil and Kuldeep. One person was detained in the case.

An eyewitness said that the blaze was massive and people living in the vicinity were choking on smoke.