Page 9 - Fire Safety

Highlights of the day: Budget session to be extended by a day till Feb 10

Updates: From CM Dhami tabling the UCC Bill in the Uttarakhand assembly to the devastating wildfires in Chile, catch all the latest updates from around the world here

Hundreds of people missing as death toll from Chile's wildfires reaches 123

Volunteers in central Chile tried to remove charred metal, broken glass and other debris Monday from neighbourhoods devastated by wildfires over the past several days, as officials raised the death toll to 122. Hundreds of people remain missing. The fires appeared to have diminished by Monday morning after burning intensely since Friday on the eastern edge of the city of Vina del Mar. Two other towns in the Valparaso region, Quilpe and Villa Alemana, also have been hit hard, and President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday that at least 3,000 homes had been burnt down in the area. An additional 10 victims were added to the death toll on Monday afternoon, bringing it to 122, said Marisol Prado, the director of Chile's Forensic Medical Service. Prado said that many bodies were in bad condition and difficult to identify, but added that forensic workers would be taking samples of genetic material from people who have reported missing relatives. Via del Mar's Mayor Macarena Ripamonti said tha

Fire set off by a gas explosion in Kenya kills 3 people, injures 280 others

A truck loaded with liquid petroleum gas cylinders exploded in a depot in the Kenyan capital and set off a late-night inferno that rapidly spread and burned homes and warehouses, killing at least three people and injuring 280, officials said Friday. The death toll was expected to rise. At least 24 people were critically injured, the Kenya Red Cross said, after a huge fireball erupted from the gas depot. Some gas cylinders were thrown hundreds of metres (feet), sparking separate fires in the neighbourhood. The truck was parked inside a gas cylinder storage and filling site that had multiple applications to operate there rejected last year because it was too close to residential areas, Kenya's Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority said, raising questions over whether it was operating illegally. The government knew this liquid petroleum gas plant was existing in a residential area but they did nothing, local resident Charles Mainge said. They should make sure this doesn't happen .

Four killed as fire breaks out in ground floor of house in Delhi's Shahdara

Four people, including an infant, died of suffocation and two were injured when a major fire broke out in a house on the ground floor of a multi-storey building in Delhi's Shahdara area on Friday, police said. A call was received at 5:22 pm about a blaze in a house in the Shahdara area, fire officials said. "Five fire tenders were pressed into service and the blaze was doused by 6:55 pm. Rubber material like wipers and a rubber-cutting machine kept in a house on the ground floor of the building had caught fire," said Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief Atul Garg. Police and fire officials rescued six people from the building and rushed them to GTB Hospital, he said. A senior police officer said after receiving information about the fire in the building, police personnel rushed to the spot and managed to rescue three people with the help of locals. They were taken to the hospital in a PCR van, he said. After fire officials reached the spot, they rescued three more people, including a

Six die, 1 injured as fire breaks out in multi-storey building in Delhi

Six people were charred to death and one was injured when a fire broke out in a multi-storey building in northwest Delhi's Pitampura area on Thursday evening, officials said. The cause of the fire, which broke out on the first floor of the building, is yet to be ascertained, they said. A call was received at 8 pm about the blaze at plot no. 37, ZP block, Pitampura and eight fire tenders were pressed into service, the fire officials said. Seven people were rescued with the help of local police and rushed to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital. Six of them, including four women, were declared dead at the hospital, a Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official said. Another DFS officer said the fire was doused in an hour and the cooling operation was underway. A police officer said the fire broke out on the first floor of the building and the smoke engulfed the three floors above it. According to preliminary information, those killed in the incident were from two different families. The deceased were

Four killed after train travelling from town bordering India set on fire

At least four people were killed and many injured after suspected arsonists set on fire a passenger train coming from the port town of Benapole, bordering India, in the country's national capital on Friday, two days ahead of Bangladesh's general elections that have been boycotted by the main opposition BNP, officials said. The incident happened around 9 pm when four carriages of the Benapole Express that runs from Benapole, a town bordering the Indian state of West Bengal, were set on fire as it nearly reached its destination of the capital's Kamalapur Railway Station. "So far we have found four bodies . . . searches are still underway," Shahjahan Shikdar, the spokesman of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told newsmen at the scene. Railway officials said that most of the train's nearly 292 passengers were returning home from India and the train was set on fire at 9 PM as it reached the Gopibagh area near the station. When we tried to bring out a middle-aged man through a window of t

Major fire in pathology lab building in Delhi's Rohini; nobody injured

A major fire broke out in a pathology laboratory in north Delhi's Rohini late last night, the fire department said on Monday. No one was reported injured. Officials said that the fire broke out on the third and fourth floor of a building which housed the pathology lab. The fire was reported to the department around 12.45 am. "Total 10 fire engines were rushed to the spot immediately. It took more than two hours to douse the flames completely. The fire was near the lift shaft. No one was injured in the fire," an official of the Delhi Fire Service said. The person said that the police have been informed for further investigation into the matter.

Fire destroys factory in Maharashtra's Thane district; no injuries

A fire destroyed a factory in an industrial pocket in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Friday. No one was injured in the fire that broke out at the packaging unit at Taloja MIDC area around 8.30 pm on Thursday, he said. An official from the Taloja fire station said local firemen and others from neighbouring fire stations rushed to the spot and controlled the blaze. While the fire destroyed the factory, its cause is being probed, he added.

Maharashtra govt woke up only after court order: HC on fire safety rules

The Maharashtra government did not take any step and woke up only after the court issued an order, the Bombay High Court censured it on Friday, after it was informed that the notification for fire safety rules and regulations would be issued by May 2024. The high court earlier this week came down heavily on the state government for dragging its feet on the implementation of fire safety rules and regulations despite a report submitted by an expert committee in February this year. The court had sought to know from the Principal Secretary of the State Urban Development Department a timeline by when the notification would be issued. On Friday, additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan submitted to a division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor that by May 2024 the mandated procedure would be completed and the final notification would be issued. The bench, while accepting this statement, remarked that had the government acted on the committee's report in ...

Fire erupts in Mumbai high-rise residential building; 135 people rescued

A fire broke out in a 24-storey residential building in Mumbai on Thursday following which at least 135 people were safely rescued from there, civic officials said. The blaze erupted at 3.40 am on the third floor of the building located in New Hind Mill Compound at MHADA colony in Ghodapdeo area where government has given flats to people, mainly mill workers, they said. The fire was confined to the electric meter cabin, wiring, cable, scrap material in the electric duct, garbage and material in garbage duct from 1st to 24th floor of the building, a civic official said. He said at least 135 people were safely rescued from different floors of the building. Out of them, 25 were evacuated from the terrace, 30 from a refuge area on the 15th floor, and 80 people from a refuge area on the 22nd floor of the building, he said. Five fire engines and three water tankers along with other fire brigade vehicles were rushed to the spot after receiving the call and the blaze was doused by 7.20 am

Pharma firm asked to stop production after death of 11 in fire at its plant

Pharmaceutical firm Blue Jet Healthcare has been ordered to stop production and remove inflammable chemical goods from its premises after a fire in its factory in Maharashtra's Raigad district killed 11 labourers early this month, said the local administration on Wednesday. The action has been taken by the district administration on recommendation of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB)'s Raigad unit. Eleven workers were killed and seven others injured when a fire broke out at the company's plant in the Mahad MIDC area on November 3. The company has been ordered to stop production and remove inflammable chemical goods from its premises within a period of 72 hours, according to a notice issued by Deputy Collector (Mahad) J S Hajare. In a separate action, the Deputy Collector has asked two companies -- Sanika Chemical and V N Creative -- to stop production for causing water pollution, leading to large-scale death of fish in a drain. On November 9, thousands of fish ...

Toll in fire mishap in apartment building rises to 10, building owner held

The toll in a major fire in a residential building in the Nampally area here on November 13 rose to ten, after a 17-year-old, who was injured in the accident succumbed to his injuries, police said on Saturday. Ten people were found in an unconscious state in different floors of the apartment complex, which has ground and four upper floors and as smoke quickly engulfed the stairwell of the only available staircase, the inmates in the upper floors were not able to climb down and got trapped in smoke and fire which caused deaths, police and fire department officials had earlier said. Nine people belonging to two families were killed in the incident while the 17-year-old, who suffered over 70 per cent burns was admitted to a state-run hospital where he died on Friday evening, they said. The officials had said due to a "short circuit" the fire broke out initially in the stilt floor of the building, where chemicals in plastic drums and other flammable materials were stored in an ...

Major fire in East Delhi's building, woman dead, 25 people rescued

A 40-year-old woman died in a major fire at a building in East Delhi's Shakarpur on Tuesday while 26 people were rescued, officials said here. They said the fire started in its parking area in the early hours of the day and engulfed the entire structure. A woman died in the fire while 26 people, along with two pets, were rescued by the Delhi Fire Service, the officials said, adding that some people jumped off the windows to save themselves. All of them were rushed to a hospital, they said. "We got a fire call at about 1.05 am... We immediately pressed three fire engines to service. Later, five more fire engines were rushed to the spot. The matter was informed to the police immediately," an official of the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said.

'Can't turn blind eye': Delhi HC orders strict enforcement of fire norms

Asserting that it cannot turn a blind eye to potential violation of fire norms, the Delhi High Court has directed the city government authorities to conduct regular checks at Azad Market to identify the violators and refer them to the Fire Prevention Wing. A bench headed by Chief Jusice Satish Chandra Sharma, in an order passed on Monday, directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi Fire Services to ensure scrupulous and rigorous enforcement of fire safety norms. The court's order came on a public interest litigation by Azad Market Residents Welfare Association for action against unauthorised and illegal constructions in the north Delhi market. The petitioner contended there were buildings in the area that were constructed in violation of the applicable bylaws and fire safety norms resulting in fire accidents and loss of human lives. The court said the grievance raised by the petitioner was sufficiently addressed by the MCD which cleared the area of unauthorised and ..

Fire dept identifies 240 rooftop restaurants in Bengaluru violating norms

Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services Department has identified over 240 rooftop restaurants in the city which have allegedly violated fire safety norms and license rules, officials said on Sunday. These include bars, hookah bars and pubs, they said. Following a massive fire that broke out at a cafe in a multi-storied commercial building in the posh Koramangala area here early this month, the fire department started inspecting various such premises to check if the fire safety norms in these establishments were complied with. "Since the major fire incident at Koramangala, we started inspecting such rooftop establishments and so far till October 26, the fire department has identified 243 premises which have violated fire related safety norms and license rules," a senior fire official said. The inspection is being carried out on daily basis on working days from Monday to Friday. A complied list of all these establishments which have violated fire safety norms has been sent to th

Coal mine fire in Kazakhstan kills 28 workers, investigation underway

A coal mine fire in central Kazakhstan killed at least 21 workers while another 25 remained unaccounted for on Saturday, the operating company ArcelorMittal Temirtau said in a statement. Some 252 people were working at the Kostenko coal mine at the time of the blaze, believed to have been caused by a pocket of methane gas, the company said. ArcelorMittal Temirtau is the local representative for Luxembourg-based multinational ArcelorMittal, the world's second-largest steel producer. It operates eight coal mines across the Karaganda region and a further four iron ore mines in central and northern Kazakhstan. The fire is the latest in a string of workplace deaths at sites operated by ArcelorMittal Temirtau. In August, four miners were killed after a fire erupted at the same mine, while five people died following a methane leak at another site in November 2022. In the statement, the company conveyed pain at the lives lost and said their efforts are now aimed at ensuring that affected .

New wildfire on Tenerife island in Spain forces 3,000 evacuations

Soldiers and firefighters were battling to control a new wildfire on Spain's Tenerife island that has forced some 3,000 people to leave their homes for safety, the Canary Islands government said Thursday. The blaze, which started Wednesday, is centred on the towns of Santa rsula and La Orotava in the mountainous northeast of the island, away from the main tourist areas in Tenerife's southwest. The same area suffered one of the island's worst wildfires in decades in August when 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of pine forest and scrubland were burnt and some 12,000 residents evacuated over several weeks. Although that wildfire was brought under control it was never fully extinguished. Small fires have continued to break out periodically in the same area due to winds and high temperatures. Some 120 agents including soldiers and firefighters were taking part in the operation to put out the fire, the Canary Islands government said. So far, an area of just 30 hectares (70 acres) has been .

Fire incident: MCD orders survey of PGs in all wards of Civil Lines Zone

Civic authorities have ordered a survey of paying guest facilities located in all wards of the Civil Lines Zone here in the wake of a fire incident at a PG facility in an apartment in Northwest Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar, officials said on Thursday. Thirty-five people, one of them a four-year-old girl, were rescued by firemen from a blaze that engulfed the apartment on Wednesday evening. The fire started from an electric metre in the stilt area where old furniture and a rickshaw were parked, according to a report received from the site, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi said in a statement. Directions have been issued to the zonal building department to open their office on Thursday, and to "conduct a survey of PGs in all wards of the Civil Lines Zone" of the MCD, it said. According to local inquiry conducted by the MCD, "the building was being used as a PG for girls accommodating 10-12 girls". At the time of the incident, seven-eight girls were present in the building and most of t

9 killed in TN fire; authorities blame cylinder taken inside 'illegally'

At least 10 persons were "reported dead" in a fire that broke out inside a stationary train compartment in Madurai railway station in the wee hours of Saturday, the Southern Railway said, adding a "gas cylinder" "illegally" taken in led to the blaze. The "private party coach" with 65 passengers had arrived from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. "10 persons reported dead," in the fire, a Southern Railway release said. Police, fire and rescue services personnel besides railway staff, involved in dousing the fire, extricated the charred bodies from the compartment. The fire broke out at 5.15 am on Saturday and the Fire service personnel who arrived at the spot half an hour later put down the blaze by 7.15 am, a Southern Railway release said. "This is a private party coach that was attached at Nagercoil Junction yesterday (Aug 25) by train no. 16730 (Punalur-Madurai Exp). Party coach was detached and kept at Madurai Stabling line. The passengers in the private party coach have....smuggled ga

Mamata condoles deaths in Tamil Nadu fire mishap, asks for more vigilance

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday condoled the deaths due to a blaze in a stationary train in Tamil Nadu's Madurai and asked the Railways to be more vigilant regarding safety. At least 10 people were "reported dead" in a fire that broke out inside a stationary train compartment in Madurai railway station early on Saturday, the Southern Railway said, adding a gas cylinder "illegally" taken in led to the blaze. The 'private party coach' with 65 passengers had arrived from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. "Another devastating incident in railways, this time at Madurai (Tamil Nadu) today, involving a massive fire in a train, and leading to at least 9 shocking and tragic deaths and minimally 20 critical injury cases," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "While I convey my condolences to the families of the deceased & pray for the injured, expect that inquires would fix responsibilities soon. May I also urge the railway authorities to be more vigilant and less callous about .