Fanned by the heat wave fires flare up in Bihar, claim homes and farms

By Manoj Pathak

Patna, April 16 (SocialNews.XYZ) As the heat wave intensifies, there has been a rise in fire incidents in Bihar. They are being reported from almost all the districts of the state including Patna.

Though the government is taking measures to curb the fire incidents, it is proving to be insufficient. If the figures of the disaster department are to be believed, more than 1,000 fire incidents have happened in the state this year.

Incidents of fire in Bihar are not new. According to the statistics of the Disaster Management Department, last year 83 people died in fire incidents in the state while 54 people lost their lives in fire incidents in 2021. Similarly, in 2020, 28 people had lost their lives in fire incidents. Going by the figures, there has been a substantial rise in the number of people who died in the fire incidents.

So far this year, more than 15 people have died in the state.

In the current situation, fire incidents are reported every day from some or the other place, in which people suffer huge losses including crops, houses and livestock.

Out of the 1,000 fire incidents, more than one-tenth of the cases took place in March and April. Among the districts of Bihar, more than 125 fire incidents have occured in Darbhanga so far while more than 115 incidents have been reported from Samastipur.

The reason in most of the fire incidents is cited as a short circuit. Sometimes the sparks coming out of the thresher machine being used to separate wheat grains also cause a fire.

The villagers consider stubble burning as the reason for the fire incidents. Aurangabad district has witnessed 40 fire incidents in the last 10 days. People say that the prevailing westerly wind acts as fuel for the fire.

According to fire department officials, the incidents of fire increase by 40 to 50 per cent in the summer season. Among the many reasons is cooking food on firewood.

Officials say that a Fire Service Week is being observed, under which people are being told how to prevent fires.

Meanwhile, the Bihar State Power Transmission Company Limited has instructed all the power circles to fix the hanging wires in the rural areas to prevent fire incidents during summer.

The company's managing director Mahendra Kumar says that fire incidents also happen due to theft of electricity. He agreed that fire cases increase in the summer season.

Patna district's fire department officer Manoj Kumar says that the department tries to rush the fire tenders to the spot in the least time after information about a fire is received. Continuous efforts are also being made for modernisation.

Presently Patna has 45 big and 40 small fire engines with three hydronic platforms for extinguishing fires in high-rise buildings.

A fire department official said that at present the fire department has about 700 vehicles like small, big and aerial hydraulic ladder platforms. These vehicles have been deployed from the district level to the headquarters, although their number is less than needed.

Source: IANS