Delhi fire department receives over 200 calls on Diwali, says number declined due to SC ban on sale of firecrackers

New Delhi: The Delhi Fire Services received over 200 calls related to fire incidents from across the national capital on Diwali. [caption id=“attachment_4154687” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] Officials said on Thursday night though the final figures were yet to come in, they felt there was a decline in the number of calls this year due to a temporary ban on sale of firecrackers by the Supreme Court. “We received 139 calls between 12 am (Thursday night) to 9 pm. Between 9 pm to 11 pm, which happen to be the peak hours, we received 62 calls,” said a senior Delhi Fire Services officer. A fire broke out in a garment godown in Gandhi Nagar in east Delhi at around 10 pm. Twenty-two fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the firefighting operations were underway, he added. Besides the 59 permanent fire stations in the national capital, the fire services department had also set up temporary stations at 28 locations across the city, from where the maximum number of calls were received on last Diwali. The department had also increased the number of phone lines to the control room in view of the high number of calls on Diwali. Last year, over 300 calls related to fire incidents were received by the control room from across the national capital during the festival.