Page 7 - Fire Accident

Fire breaks out at ED office in Mumbai, important govt files destroyed

A major blaze broke out at the Enforcement Directorate's office building in south Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday, and the firefighting operations have continued for more than six hours, officials said. There were no reports of casualties in the fire that broke out at the Kaiser-I-Hind building in the Ballard Estate area, they said. Officials said the blaze, which started on the fourth floor of the five-storey building housing the ED office around 2.31 am, has continued to rage despite efforts. Firefighters are struggling to bring the blaze under control, a fire brigade official said. Mumbai Fire Bridge upgraded the fire to Level III at around 4.17 am, which is generally considered a major fire. At least eight fire engines, six jetties, water tankers and other equipment have been deployed to the spot. The official said several documents and equipment inside the office are feared to have been damaged. He said the exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

Indians among 18 get Lifesaver Award for rescuing 22 from fire in Singapore

Eighteen individuals, including construction workers from India, were recognised with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Community Lifesaver Award for saving 16 children and six adults from a fire at a Singapore shophouse last Tuesday (April 8). Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan's seven-year-old son was among those hurt in the fire at the three-storey River Valley Road building which houses a children's enrichment centre run by Newtonshow Camp. The children, aged between six and 10, six adults, aged between 23 and 55, were rescued and attended to by the 18 people from within the shophouse vicinity before the SCDF firefighting team arrived. A 10-year-old Australian girl, rescued from the fire, subsequently died at one of the hospitals. For all fire incidents, especially this one, time is of the critical essence. So, we really thank the members of (the) public who responded that day, even before SCDF's arrival, said Colonel Tay Zhi Wei, the commander of the 1st

Fire at China nursing home kills 20 elderly residents, 19 hospitalised

Twenty elderly people were killed in a fire at a nursing home in north China's Hebei province, local officials said on Wednesday. A total of 39 elderly residents were residing in the building when the blaze broke out around 9 pm on Tuesday (local time) in Longhua County, Chengde City, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The fire was extinguished by around 11 pm. A total of 20 people have been confirmed dead so far while 19 were sent to a hospital for examination. Police have detained the person in charge of the nursing home. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, the report said. Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted Jimu News that the 300-bed Guoen Senior Home had 260 elderly residents at the time of the blaze, based on public records. Among them were 98 people with total disability and 84 described as semi-disabled. According to the records, the remaining 78 residents were capable of self-care. According to the licensing record, its business scope was

Highlights: Case against CAA protestors based on assumptions, says court in Delhi riots case

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Massive fire at warehouse in Gurugram, over 200 firefighters deployed

A massive fire broke out at a garment warehouse in Saraswati Enclave Industrial area here and soon spread to two adjoining warehouses of liquor and shoes, prompting a 12-hour operation to douse the blaze, officials said on Wednesday. While no one was reported injured despite the intensity of the fire that started late at night on Tuesday, there was extensive damage to goods in the warehouses. More than 20 fire tenders and over 200 firefighters had to be deployed to control the fire. According to a senior fire officer, a fire broke out in a garment warehouse in Saraswati Enclave Industrial Area at 11.49 pm on Tuesday night. Fire engines from the Sector 37 fire station reached the spot, but the fire spread rapidly to the adjoining liquor and shoe warehouses. Staff from all fire stations of the district and vehicles and firefighters from stations in Nuh and Jhajjar districts were also called, he said. The fire was brought under control after a 12-hour operation on Wednesday ...

Gujarat: PM Modi announces Rs 2 L ex-gratia for kin of Banaskantha accident

According to officials, the explosion at the firecracker godown in the Deesa area on Tuesday morning led to the collapse of the structure, trapping several workers inside

13 killed in blast at firecracker factory in Gujarat's Banaskantha

Members of the workers also lived on the premises and were trapped under the rubble, Banaskantha Collector Mihir Patel noted

Gas fire in Malaysia injures more than 100 people, damages 49 houses

A fire caused by a burst gas pipe spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia's largest city Tuesday, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometres (miles) and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10 am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the valves will eventually snuff out the fire. The flames, 20 stories high at one point, were small enough for firefighters to approach around 2:45 pm, the Selangor state fire department told the Star newspaper. At least 49 houses were damaged and 112 people were injured, with 63 sent to the hospital for burns, breathing difficulties and other injuries, Selangor Deputy Police Chief .

Cash discovery row: Delhi fire services chief appears before SC probe panel

The Supreme Court-appointed three-member in-house inquiry committee, probing allegations of alleged discovery of wads of cash from Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma's residence, met Delhi Fire Services chief Atul Garg here on Thursday. According to sources, Garg deposed before the probe panel at Haryana State Guest House at Chanakyapuri and recorded his statement. Garg, however, had denied claims of the cash discovery by the fire fighters. Earlier in the day, the leaders of six High Court bar associations met Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and sought withdrawal of the recommendation to transfer Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court. Soon after the meeting, Allahabad High Court Bar Association (AHCBA) president Anil Tiwari said the CJI had assured them of considering the demands. However, the CJI did not promise anything, said sources privy to the development. In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court late on Saturday night uploaded on its website an in-house

S Korea in uphill battle to contain massive wildfires as death toll hits 26

Multiple wildfires raging across South Korea's southern regions for days have killed 26 people and destroyed more than 300 structures, officials said, as thousands of personnel and dozens of helicopters were mobilized again Thursday to battle the the county's worst-ever blazes. Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop said a small amount - less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) - of rain was expected in the area on Thursday, not enough to play a meaningful role in extinguishing the wildfires. The fatalities include a pilot whose helicopter crashed during efforts to contain a fire and four firefighters and other workers who died after being trapped by fast-moving flames driven by strong winds. Authorities haven't disclosed details of the civilian dead, except that they are mostly in their 60s and 70s. They suspect human error caused several of the wildfires that began last Friday, including cases where people started fires while clearing overgrown grass from family tombs or with sparks

Highlights: SC Collegium recommends Justice Varma's transfer back to Allahabad HC amid cash row

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Wildfires in Japan damage homes, force residents to evacuate in 2 areas

Wildfires have hit several regions in western Japan, injuring at least two people, forcing dozens of residents to evacuate and damaging a number of homes as hundreds of firefighters battled the widening blazes in the mountainous areas. The fires in the western towns of Okayama, Imabari and Aso broke out Sunday, quickly burning hundreds of hectares (acres). Six homes have been damaged in city of Okayama, where a fire started on Mount Kaigara and burned 250 hectares (600 acres) of the forest. In Imabari, in the Ehime prefecture on the main island of Shikoku, the fire left a firefighter slightly injured. Firefighters and defense helicopters sprayed water but the blazes in the two prefectures had not been extinguished as of Monday afternoon. Experts blamed dry weather and dried-up fallen leaves on the ground in the forest as likely causes of the wildfires in Okayama and Imabari. A smaller fire was detected in the mountainous village of Aso in the Kumamoto prefecture on the southern ma

'No cash found' at Justice Varma's residence, says Delhi Fire chief

Earlier in the day, media reports said a large stash of cash was recovered from Delhi HC Justice Yashwant Varma's residence during the course of fire-fighting a blaze at his residence

Fire breaks out at hospital in J-K's Rajouri, 150 patients evacuated

A fire broke out at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Tuesday, prompting the evacuation of more than 150 patients from the hospital, officials said. The fire was noticed in the basement of the hospital in Rajouri town on Tuesday morning. It was controlled within one hour without reports of any casualty, assistant director of Fire and Emergency Services, Himanshu Gupta, said. The patients and their attendants were taken out of the hospital building as smoke filled the wards, he said. Three fire tenders were pressed into service to put off the blaze, the official said, adding that a probe is on to ascertain the exact cause of the fire Deputy commissioner of Rajouri, Abhishek Sharma, visited the hospital along with his team to assess the situation. "Our priority is to restore normal operations, including OPD services, at the hospital," Sharma said. On the alleged failure of the hospital's internal fire safety mechanism, the deputy ...

51 dead, dozens more injured in nightclub fire in North Macedonia

A massive fire that broke out early Sunday in a nightclub in North Macedonia's southern town of Kocani has killed 51 people and injured about 100 more, interior minister Panche Toshkovski told a press conference. The blaze began around 2:35 am during a concert by a local pop group, according to Toshkovski. He said the young clubgoers used pyrotechnics that caused the roof to catch fire. Video on social media shows chaos inside. Family members have gathered in front of hospitals and Kocani's city offices begging authorities for more information. Toshkovski said police have arrested one man, but didn't provide details on the person's involvement.

Three injured as leaking gas pipeline catches fire in Mumbai's Andheri area

Three persons suffered burn injuries after a leaking gas pipeline caught fire on a road in Mumbai's Andheri area early on Sunday, an official said. Two vehicles were also damaged in the incident, he said. The Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) in a statement later said the pipeline was damaged due to the "JCB impact during unauthorised, uncontrolled digging". The blaze erupted at 12.35 am in a heavily leaking supply pipeline of the MGL, passing through the middle of a road at Sher-E-Punjab society near a gurdwara at Takshila in Andheri (East) area, a fire official said earlier in the day. It was a "level-one" fire which was confined to two moving vehicles, he said. A two-wheeler rider, Arvindkumar Kaithal (21), suffered 30 to 40 per cent burns, another biker, Aman Harishankar Saroj (22), sustained 40 to 50 per cent burn injuries, and auto-rickshaw driver Suresh Kailas Gupta (52) suffered 20 per cent burns, he said. A water tanker, a fire engine and other assistance were rushed to the sp

Japanese firefighters struggle to contain biggest wildfire in 50 years

Residents have been instructed to evacuate, as more than 2,000 firefighters use helicopters and hoses to douse the flames

Massive fire at Pennsylvania aerospace plant prompts evacuation orders

Schools were closed and residents ordered to shelter-in-place on Tuesday after a large fire broke out at an aerospace manufacturer's facility in a town north of Philadelphia, officials said. The fire broke out at SPS Technologies in Jenkintown around 9:30 pm on Monday. Witnesses said there was an explosion and flames could be seen inside the warehouse, the Abington Township Police Department said in a statement on social media. The building was evacuated, all employees were accounted for and no injuries were reported. SPS Technologies describes itself as a developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a line of aerospace fasteners and precision components. The Abington and Jenkintown school districts and all private and parochial schools were closed on Tuesday. The shelter-in-place order initially was in effect until the incident was under control because smoke and particulates from the fire were filtering across the area, officials said. But residents and businesses in the immedi

Fire breaks out at construction site in South Korea's Busan, 6 dead

A fire broke out at a resort construction site in the South Korean city of Busan Friday, killing at least four people, fire officials said. About 100 workers managed to evacuate from the site and about 90 firefighters were trying to put out the blaze, which was reported at around 10:20 am, according to Busan's fire agency. It wasn't immediately clear whether workers were still trapped inside. The agency said six people were taken to hospitals in cardiac arrest and four of them were pronounced dead. Four other people sustained minor injuries. Television footage showed gray-black smoke and flames rising from the site and a helicopter approaching the building as part of rescue efforts. The country's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, instructed officials to deploy all available personnel and equipment to put out the fire.

Massive fire breaks out at chemical plant in Badalpur area of Greater Noida

A fire broke out following an explosion at a chemical plant in the Badalpur area of Greater Noida early Sunday morning, officials said, adding around two dozen fire tenders were pressed into service. The fire at the Shri Banke Bihari Chemical Plant on Dujana Road was put out after more than seven hours of intense fire fighting, the officials said, adding no one was injured but the factory has suffered massive damages. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Pradeep Kumar said the blaze broke out around 3 am and the factory workers tried to douse it using the equipment they had at their disposal, but it could not be contained. The workers evacuated the premises and the fire department was informed. A thick column of black smoke, visible from a distance, billowed into the sky from from the factory. Locals said the fire started following an explosion at the chemical plant. Deputy Commissioner of Police Shakti Mohan Awasthi, said, "We received ...