Srinagar witnesses 466 fire incidents this year

Srinagar, Dec 24: The summer capital witnessed 466 fire incidents this year destroying property worth crores of rupees.

Officials of the Fire and Emergency Services department said the majority of the property was saved by the efforts of the department.

As per the report of its internal planning department, out of Rs 421 crore, property worth Rs 405 crore was saved.

The data revealed that there was a decline in fire incidents across Kashmir with over 2200 fire incidents till November this year. “Srinagar fire incidents form the major chunk of fire incidents with 466 fire incidents. This accounts for over 20 percent of the total fire incidents in Kashmir. In a major fire incident, three tourists lost their lives and one lady died in a separate fire incident by November,”
officials said.

Senior officials from the department said that although with the awareness efforts, fire incidents were down in Kashmir, much more is needed to be done.

Assistant Director, Fire & Emergency Services Department Aqib Hussain Mir said that the plan of the department is to spread more awareness so that there will be a person with firefighting and prevention skills in every family. He said the reason for the overall decline in fire incidents in Kashmir is due to uninterrupted awareness programs held by the department.

“Under the guidance of our DG Fire and Emergency, we were able to make people more aware. We went to schools, hospitals, and government intuitions to make people aware. In many cases, people were able to control the fire themselves before we reached spots. This is a silver lining in the context of awareness,” Mir said, adding that the tireless efforts of the department saved the majority of the properties in Srinagar.

He said in order to bring down these fire incidents, the department will continue to train people on both prevention and control of fire. He said people must be more cautious and focus on preventive measures.

“Incorporating fire safety measures has to be a major part of the design of houses and other properties. We are going to launch various drives next year so that things will further improve,” he added.