Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, Jan 13: Kashmir Valley has witnessed a total of 4, 071 incidents of blaze in last two years while there has been increase in the previous year.
The figures compiled by the Fire Department show that there were 2373 incidents of inferno in the year 2014 while the 2015 witnessed a surge with 2418 blaze incidents. In 2014, the highest number of fire incidents were recorded in the month of December with 307 incidents. The January month of 2015 recorded highest 332 fire incidents in the Valley.
In 2014 and 2015, the lowest fire incidents were recorded in the months of September (101) and July (132) respectively. With the onset of winter, the incidents of fire increase every year in Kashmir Valley and everyday the Fire Service Department officials receive fire calls.
The officials of the Fire Services Department said that the primary reason for the increase in the fire incidents during the months of winter is heating element. “The main cause of the fire in the winters is heating element. You see there are heaters, boilers and other heating appliances which causes overload and due to overload the electric wires heat up and become cause of blazes,” said a senior official.
He said that the litigation in coal and firewood is another cause of increasing fire incidents in Valley during winters. “What we do here is that we place coal and firewood inside our houses in top floors. This is a blunder and is one of the primary reasons for the blaze incidents,” said the official.
The officials said that every year the properties and goods worth crores of rupees is gutted and destroyed due to the inferno incidents in Valley. Only recently two houseboats worth Rs. 6 crore were gutted in a massive fire in Dal Lake while nearly a dozen houses were gutted at Urdu Bazar here in congested downtown in two separate incidents.
The officials also expressed concern over the fact that new colonies and residential houses in Valley are coming up without No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from Fire Services Department. “Hardly anyone approaches us for NOCs. There is no planning and whenever blaze incidents occur they not only destroy the structure from where fire erupts but also engulfs adjoining structures,” the officials said, adding “there are no fire gaps according to the rules of Fire Department. Also, we hardly have any colony with the road breadth of 14 feet according to Fire Department rule.”
The officials maintained that the awareness is must for controlling the growing number of fire incidents in the Valley.
Follow our WhatsApp channel