Deepavali: Fire calls minimal in south Tamil Nadu, says senior officer

Thanks to awareness programmes conducted by Fire & Rescue Services personnel in the days leading up to the festival, only three calls were received, and all were minor, the officer said

Mock drills and demonstrations helped residents celebrate the festival of lights safely

On the eve of Deepavali, the night of November 3, there were no calls from the public and on the day of the festival, November 4, there were only three calls from the entire southern region comprising nine districts, said Deputy Director (Fire & Rescue Services) N. Vijaykumar, on Friday.

Ahead of Deepavali celebrations this year, the Fire & Rescue Services personnel had organised 341 awareness programs and demonstrations across the nine districts over the last 15 days.

There are 83 fire stations in south Tamil Nadu, which comprises Madurai, Theni, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Thoothukudi, Palayamkottai (Tirunelveli), Nagercoil (Kanniyakumari) and Tenkasi districts.

With 28 fire tenders, nine District Fire Officers, 12 ADFOs, 78 Station Fire Officers and 1,252 personnel, the department created awareness and educated residents about safe methods of bursting crackers and fireworks.

Apart from mock drills held at educational institutions, the fire and rescue service personnel conducted demonstrations at market places, bus stands and railway stations. Pamphlets were distributed through volunteers and the fire control room number was popularised among the public, Mr. Vijaykumar told The Hindu .

The objective of the fire and rescue department was to prevent fires in any form and proactive measures such as positioning fire tenders at vantage locations helped in reaching the spot swiftly.

With coordination among the officers and the personnel, the communication was also quick, whenever there were calls. This season, he said, there were only three calls about fire mishaps, which were minor. The personnel immediately reached and put out the fires and investigations revealed that a thatched roof had caught fire after a rocket firecracker had fallen on it.

Out of the 809 applications received for setting up cracker shops in southern Tamil Nadu, 672 were given licences and the rest 137 were rejected, Mr. Vijaykumar added.