Page 311 - Disaster Accident
State issues notice to Kolkata Metro for inadequate fire safety measures
A day after at least 40 passengers were injured in a Kolkata metro fire, West Bengal Fire Services department on Friday issued a notice to the metro authority for lack of fire safety measures, a senior official of the state fire department said.
18 high-powered pumps being moved to Meghalaya mining site
Pump manufacturing company Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and Coal India on Friday are jointly moving 18 high-powered pumps to a remote coal mine here where 15 diggers have been trapped since its flooding a fortnight ago, officials said. The Indian Air Force joined the rescue operation and airlifted 10 pumps from Bhubaneswar. Its personnel have landed in Guwahati, 270 kilometres away from the 370-foot-deep illegal coal mine, they said. Two surveyors from Kirloskar Brothers Ltd arrived at the site Thursday night from Pune and 10 pumps of the company are on the way to Shillong, East Jaintia Hills district Superintendent of Police Sylvester Nongtynger told PTI. General Manager of North Eastern Coalfields J Bora arrived with two officers of the company in the afternoon and they were followed by a 10-member team of experts of the Coal India (CIL) to the site to begin the assesment of the situation, he said. The illegal rat-hole coal mine is located at Lumthari village near Khliehriat, the ...
Over 40,000 evacuated in Indonesia over fresh tsunami fear
A massive evacuation was ordered from the coast along Indonesia's western Sunda Strait on Friday after the warning of a possible second tsunami triggered by the eruption of the Anak Krakatau volcano that claimed over 400 lives last week.
Navy sends divers to Meghalaya to rescue trapped miners
A group of Indian Navy divers are being taken by air from Vishakhapatnam to join operations to rescue 15 miners trapped in a flooded rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya since December 13, official sources here said Friday. They said the Navy divers will join ongoing rescue operations on Saturday morning. Three naval personnel have already reached the site of the rescue operation and a group of divers will join them in the next 12 hours, the sources said. The miners are trapped in a 370-feet-deep illegal coal mine in Ksan area of Lumthari village in Meghalaya since December 13.
Meghalaya miners' rescue: Air Force airlifts NDRF team to Guwahati
The Air Force on Friday airlifted a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team along with equipment from Bhubaneswar to Guwahati for the rescue operation being undertaken by the Meghalaya government to free the miners trapped in a coal mine.According to Defence Ministry spokesperson Col Aman Anand, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is keeping a close watch on the operation in case any help is needed.He said the Defence Minister got a call from the Meghalaya government on Thursday requesting assistance from the ministry in the rescue operation.Following the request, two aircraft - C 130 and AN 32 - of the Eastern Air Command were kept on standby, said Col Anand."Today a C-130 transport plane took off from Bhubaneswar at 0830 hrs carrying NDRF personnel and equipment and reached Guwahati at 1200 hrs," he said.Col Anand added, "The Meghalaya government has taken the operation from here??? but the Air Force is keeping a close watch should there be any requirement we are ready to ...
More US police officers die on duty than before : report
More police officers have died in the line of duty this year in the United States than in 2017, according to data released Thursday. The most common cause of death was gunfire, and vehicular accidents claimed nearly as many officers' lives. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said in a report that 144 federal, state and local officers have died so far in 2018. That figure represents roughly a 12 percent increase from the 129 who died in 2017. The majority of the officers who died were either shot 52 this year, up from 46 in 2017 or fatally injured in car or motorcycle crashes, which accounted for 50 deaths. Other fatalities involved heart attacks, strokes, drownings and cancer and other illnesses among those who responded to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. Of the officers who were shot, eight were killed during investigative activity and six were killed while responding to calls of a domestic or public disturbance, according to the report. Two were fatally shot ..
Power plant explosion sends New York into frenzy
A transformer explosion at a power plant in Queens temporarily lit up the New York skyline in bright blue and caused a frenzy in the city, with many on the social media fearing an alien invasion.
Indonesia trims tsunami death toll, hikes injury tally
The number of people evacuated after Indonesia's deadly tsunami has nearly doubled to some 40,000 while more than 7,000 were injured in the disaster, officials said Friday, as they trimmed the official death toll. Authorities said 426 people had been killed -- down from a previous tally of 430 -- with double-counting by different districts blamed for the change. Two dozen people remain missing almost a week after the disaster. The fresh figures come a day after Indonesia's disaster agency raised the danger alert level for an erupting volcano that sparked the killer tsunami at the weekend. They have also warned that fresh activity at the crater threatened to trigger another deadly wave. Previously, the number of displaced -- including many left homeless -- stood at 22,0000 but that figure has now jumped to just over 40,000, according to the latest tally. Some 7,202 people suffered injuries, jumping from 1,495, while nearly 1,300 homes were destroyed as the waves crashed into the ...
Weather hampers efforts to inspect Indonesia tsunami volcano
Bad weather hampered efforts to assess whether Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano island could trigger another deadly tsunami as authorities said the search for victims in the worst-affected province will continue into January. Indonesia's disaster agency said Friday that 426 people died in the Sunda Strait tsunami. That was slightly lower than previously announced due to some victims being recorded twice. It said 23 are missing. High seas and clouds have hindered attempts to visually inspect Anak Krakatau. A large part of the volcano collapsed following an eruption Saturday, triggering the tsunami. Tsunami expert Gegar Prasetya said the severity of another potential tsunami could be reduced significantly since satellite radar shows the volcano is now much smaller. The disaster agency said the emergency period for Banten province ends January 9.
Fire in storeroom at ISRO's Ahmedabad campus
A minor fire broke out Friday at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) campus here, an official said. The fire broke out in a storeroom in ISRO's Space Application Centre, the official said. Chief Fire Officer M F Dastur said the fire was brought under control in an hour, adding that five fire tenders were deployed for the operation, but only one was used. "The fire started in a store room in the SAC campus Friday morning. Only some old books got burnt in the incident. The fire was brought under control within one hour," he said.
ONGC salvages cyclone-hit rig Olinda Star
A team of international experts mobilised by Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has recused cyclone-hit semi-submersible rig, 'Olinda Star' off the east coast. The company in a statement said the rig had tilted at an angle in the aftermath of cyclone Pethai which hit coastal Andhra Pradesh earlier this month. The rig Olinda Star was deployed for ONGC operations off the east coast. After meteorological department's cyclone warning, the 111 crew members working on the rig were evacuated on December 14 and 15. "ONGC made elaborate and quick arrangements for evacuating persons and deployed helicopters and boats," the statement said. The rig was pictured tilting at a close-to critical angle after cyclone Pethai hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh. It was saved following an operation to restore the ballasting system. "As the weather had been rough with large swells hampering the approach to the rig via sea, Indian Navy helicopters were pressed into service to ferry expert crew to the rig. 12 ...
Three of Indian-origin family killed in accident in Iceland
Seven members of a UK-based Indian-origin family were involved in a freak accident in Iceland when their SUV crashed off a bridge on Thursday, killing two women and a child. Four others, including two British Indian brothers and two young children, remain in critical condition after being airlifted to a hospital in Iceland's capital Reykjavik. The family was reportedly on holiday in the Nordic island country when their hired Toyota Land Cruiser slammed through a railing while crossing a high single-lane bridge at Skeidararsandur, a vast sand plain in the southern part of the country. The Indian Ambassador to Iceland, T Armstrong Changsan, visited the injured at Landsptali hospital, where he spoke to hospital staff and the chaplain before contacting family members in India. "The situation is very bad. Three people have died and one of them is an infant. There were seven people, he told local media. The holidaymakers from the UK included two couples in their thirties and three children,
Woman dies after being hit by train, police blame fog
A 28-year-old woman was killed and her six-year-old daughter seriously injured when they were hit by a goods train while trying to cross a railway track here Friday, with the police saying the dense fog in the area might have contributed to the accident. The local police said Maya was trying to cross the railway track in Tulsipur police station area with her daughter when they were hit by the train. They said the two were rushed to a nearby community health centre where the woman succumbed to her injuries. The reduced visibility due to the dense cover of fog in the area in the early hours Friday is believed to be a cause of the accident, police added.
Additional NDRF team rushed to Meghalaya to rescue miners
The Central government on Friday rushed an additional National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team to Meghalaya to assist the state in evacuating 15 miners who are trapped inside an illegal coal mine for 16 days now.
Godown gutted in fire in Maha's Thane, no reports of injuries
A scrap godown was gutted in a fire that broke out early Friday morning in Bhiwandi in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said. Thane Regional Disaster Management Cell chief Santosh Kadam said no one was injured in the fire that broke out at around 2:45am Friday. Fire Brigade personnel managed to douse the flames after a four-hour operation, he added. Items stored in the godown, a tailoring shop nearby and some parked motorcycles were destroyed in the fire, the cause of which is being probed, said Fire Brigade officials.
6.1-magnitude quake strikes Indonesia
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale rocked Indonesia's Papua Barat province on Friday, officials said. There was, however, no report of any casualty.
Two killed, 6 injured in road accident in Shahjahanpur
Two people were killed and six others injured in a road accident near Bilhari village here, police said Friday. Shailendra Kumar (32) and Anuj Kumar (33) were killed Thursday after a mini-truck rammed into a tractor and a car before hitting their cycle, Tilhar police station in-charge Ashok Pal said. Six people, occupants of the tractor and the car, were injured in the accident. They are undergoing treatment at a local hospital, he said, The mini-truck's driver fled the spot along with his vehicle. A case was registered against him, the officer said.
Odisha Fire Services to assist rescue operation in Meghalaya mining tragedy
An Indian Air Force transport carrier 'C-130J Super Hercules' with 20 Odisha Fire Services personnel onboard have left for Shillong from Bhubaneswar on Friday morning to rescue the trapped miners in Meghalaya.At least 15 miners have been trapped in a coal mine in East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya for more than two weeks. The attempts by other rescuers including National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team and state authorities to reach the miners have yielded no success so far."The 20 member team of Odisha Fire Service which is headed by chief fire service officer is meant to assist the local authorities in rescue operations. They are carrying all equipment and pumps along with them so they can take out water from the inundated mine," said the Director General of Odisha Fire Service, Bijay Kumar Sharma.The Odisha Fire Service team is equipped with 15 high pressure pumps to drain out water from the mine in which the miners are trapped.Odisha's Special Relief Commissioner had sought the ..
'All lives matter': Indonesia saves tsunami-stranded turtles
Searching a debris-strewn beach for victims of Indonesia's deadly tsunami, a rescue team happened upon a giant sea turtle trapped in a pile of marine trash. It took four staff to haul the endangered creature back to sea, just the latest in a string of turtle rescues along the country's devastated coast. "The turtle was really large and it got stuck in a pile of rubbish, lying almost upside down," Adi Ayangsyah, a member of a search and rescue team in hard-hit Lampung on Sumatra island, told AFP Friday. He said the turtle was "probably about 30 kilograms". This week, about 15 other turtles were rescued in the same area. "We think they were swept ashore by the tsunami," said Teguh Ismail, head of Lampung's conservation agency. "But they didn't have any wounds so we got them back in the water." An eruption of the Anak Krakatoa volcano, which sits in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands, caused a section of the crater to collapse and slide into the ocean, ...
'Headrest': Film on importance of safety tools in cars
Moved by stories of children dying in cars due to suffocation, filmmaker Sandeep Singh has made a public service film titled "Headrest", a guide on tckling emergency situations in a car.