Delhi gets 293 Diwali fire calls

The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received 293 calls on Diwali -- a five-year record -- but only 55 related to firecrackers, an official said Friday.

"This is the highest figure in the past five years," a senior fire official told IANS. "From the midnight of Oct 22-23 till 7 a.m. Oct 24, we got 293 calls of fire incidents from the city.

"Of these, 55 were related to fire caused by crackers. In most cases, the reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained," he added.

The total number of calls Thursday was 220, up from 177 on Diwali day in 2013, 184 in 2012, 206 in 2011, 169 in 2010 and 207 on Diwali day in 2009.

A total of 73 calls came from Thursday midnight till 7 a.m. Friday.

The most number of 37 calls were received between between 9 and 10 p.m. Thursday.

While no major fire accident was reported in Delhi, two DFS officials suffered minor burn injures while trying to douse a fire in a shop in Okhla in south Delhi.

That fire erupted due to cooking gas cylinder that burst. The two injured officials were identified as Yashwant Meena, 50, and Mukesh, 35.