Firefighters on duty: ‘Been years since we celebrated Diwali with family’

This Diwali, over 1,800 fire fighters attended to more than 200 fire-related incidents across the capital. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez/Representational image/Files)

On Thursday, Deputy Chief Fire officer of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), Sunil Chaudhary, celebrated Diwali with his family and went to sleep early. The officer was supposed to attend to ‘medium’ fire calls. Till 10 pm, no fire of that magnitude had broken out in the city. At 10.30 pm, a fire broke out at a godown in Gandhi Nagar. As the blaze spread to the terrace, locals contacted fire services and Chaudhary was called in. As he reached the spot, the fire had engulfed the entire building. Fire fighters drilled four holes into a wall for the water hoses. It took 80 fire fighters and 25 fire tenders until 7 am on Friday to douse the flames — over 10 hours after it broke out. Four fire fighters were injured during the incident.

Every year, fire fighters gear up for Diwali as the festival sees a surge in fire-related incidents. This Diwali, over 1,800 fire fighters attended to more than 200 fire-related incidents across the capital. For the lower rank officers, the last time they had celebrated Diwali was before they joined the department. “I have not celebrated with my family for years. This year, my son asked me why I was not home for Diwali. I had no answer. I had to live stream the rush at the fire station to show him how hectic my work is. I hope he understood,” a DFS operator said.

Sanjay Tomar, the divisional officer at Connaught Place fire station, said he hasn’t been around for any festival since 1993 — when a bomb ripped through Lahori Gate. “When my children have summer vacations and Diwali holidays, my work load increases manifold. My children are now used to the sound of alarms and know that I have to attend to a call. But this Diwali, my daughter finally asked me why I have to be the one answering the fire calls.” Even though Chaudhary and a few other seniors managed to get some sleep, lower rank officers said they have not slept in the past three days.

A fresh DFS recruit and some of his colleagues told The Indian Express that they have been working three back-to-back shifts. “We have acute staff shortage; we need at least 1,000 more people. All our leaves were cancelled… Every time we received a call, we had to analyse escape strategies, and worst-case scenarios. We have stopped thinking about Diwali now,” a firefighter at the Moti Nagar fire station said.