Fire accidents this Deepavali hits 5-year high in city

On Friday, the Chennai Fire and Rescue department received as many as 44 calls with regard to fire accidents, out of which more than 30 cases were caused by crackers and on Saturday, on the day of Deepavali, the number of cases increased further, with the control room recording as many as 124 complaints.

Officials from the Fire department told DTNext that out of the 124 cases, 87 fire accidents were caused by crackers. In spite of the increase in the number of fire accidents, there were no casualties or major damages to property. A woman suffered considerable burn injuries when she tried to kill mosquitoes using an electric bat near the area where the crackers were stored. The crackers caught fire from the sparks and the woman was injured at Chitlapakkam. According to police, three persons were admitted to hospital and 24 others were treated as outpatients at various hospitals in the city. The number of cases recorded in 2015 had come down to just 4 when compared to the 24 accidents recorded in 2014. In 2013, 64 cases of fire accidents were reported.