New Delhi: More than 250 people reported burn wounds in Delhi, and over 100 in Jaipur, while properties worth crores were gutted in Shimla on Diwali night.
A building near Gate 31 of the Rashtrapati Bhavan caught fire Tuesday afternoon, prompting authorities to rush five fire tenders.
Seven people were rescued after a fire broke out in a four-storey residential building in west Delhi’s Mohan Garden area on Diwali night, while a massive blaze hit two adjacent buildings in Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in the early hours of Tuesday.
A total of 129 burn cases, the highest, were reported from the Safdarjung Hospital, which has the country’s largest burn unit, officials said.
After that, 55 burn cases were reported from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), 37 from the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, 16 from the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital, and 15 from the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital.
Of the 129 cases reported by Safdarjung, 118 were caused by firecrackers and 11 by diyas (earthen lamps). A total of 117 patients were from Delhi, and nine had to undergo surgery. Twenty-four patients were children aged below 12 years, Sarabhai said.
At the Centre-run AIIMS, the Burns and Plastic Surgery Department received 55 Diwali-related burn cases in 48 hours, and 10 patients with major burns were admitted to the ICU.
They have life- and limb-threatening injuries, said Dr Maneesh Singhal, Head of the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery at the AIIMS. He said 23 patients had to undergo surgery.
In Jaipur, 99 cases of cracker-related burns were reported from the emergency ward of the state-run SMS hospital, wounding more than 100 people. Of these, 20 were admitted, an official of the hospital said.
A fire was reported at a two-storey building near Rashtrapati Bhavan at 1.51 pm. Five fire tenders were rushed to the site. No casualties were reported. Authorities said the fire was sparked in domestic articles on the ground floor of the building.
A house caught fire in Delhi’s Mohan Garden area on Diwali night, prompting authorities to rescue seven people from three families from the building.
They were evacuated with the help of ropes by the local police with assistance from people before the arrival of the fire brigade, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said.
Three more people were rescued later by the fire brigade. Forty fire tenders were rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in the northwest of the national capital after a massive fire was reported from the area.
The fire had broken out in two godowns, spanning about 1,000 square metres. Authorities received a call about the blaze at 1.25 am.
The godowns had automobile repairing tools stored, an official said.
The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received 269 emergency calls on Diwali night, down by nearly 15 per cent from last year’s figure of 318, which was the highest in the past 13 years, an officer said.
No major mishaps, loss of life or serious injuries were reported this year, the officer said.
In Himachal Pradesh, 47 incidents of fire, at least three of them major, were reported Monday night.
A big fire broke out in the upper floors of a multi-story hotel in Manikaran in Kullu district, forcing the tourists and hotel staff to rush out. No casualties were reported, and all tourists were safely evacuated.
Shimla district saw a major fire each in Rampur, Rohru, and the Shimla Rural assembly segment, gutting about 10 shops in all.
Losses in these fires were pegged at about Rs 1.40 crore, fire officials told PTI.
At least four shops were burned near the Khopdi Temple in Rampur in Shimla district, while three shops were damaged in a fire near Bhanoti Chowk in Shimla Rural.
Many more shops were destroyed by a fire in the Chidgaon area of Rohru in Shimla.
An electrical shop in Pathiyar in Nagarota Bagwan area of Kangra district was struck by a blaze that gutted goods worth lakhs of rupees.