NEW DELHI: More than 1,500 people have died in the Capital in the last five years in various accidents, starting from major fires and road accidents to drowning and sewer cleaning operations, according to the latest data on such deaths compiled by the Delhi Fire Services. As per data shared by the fire department, during 2016-2017, as many as 277 people died whereas during 2017-18 about 318 people had died, during 2018-19, 297 people died, during 2019-20, about 308 people died and during 2020-21, as many as 346 people died in such varied accidents. "We received various kinds of incident calls. The fire service continued to make sincere endeavours in protecting the life and property of the citizens," an official said. The data added that over 8,000 people were injured in such accidents. The data from DFS further showed that in the last five years, over 1.47 lakh calls were attended to by fire officials. "117 medium and six fire were reported in last five years. Last year 25,709 calls in from 64 fire stations (including three-day time operating fire stations at Geetanjali Enclave, Jasola and Yamuna Vihar) were received," the data showed. Atul Garg, Director, DFS said the proposal for filling of 706 posts of fire operators has been sent to the DSSSB, the recruitment process has been started, the physical examination has been conducted and a written examination is likely to be held soon. "However, to tie up the situation, 500 fire operators have been deputed on an outsourced basis, first-ever in the history of fire services," he said. Further, the result of recruitment to the post of Radio Telephone Operators have been announced and 32 RTOs are about to join the services very soon. As per the DFS chief, to reduce the response time, a target of 72 fire stations (including 2 non-planed fire station Delhi Secretariat and Udyog Nagar) was planned during the 12th five-year plan. The remaining eight fire stations have now been included in the 13th Five-year plan. In one such case in 2018, 17 people, including 10 women, died in a major fire at a two-storey firecracker warehouse in north Delhis Bawana Industrial Area. The blaze, which started in the storage unit on the ground floor, ripped through the building, fire services said. Another major fire was on December 8, 2019, at a building in New Anaj Mandi. In this tragic incident, 45 persons (including nine children) lost their lives and 21 persons (including six children) were injured. Furthermore, in 2018, five people died after they entered a sewage treatment plant in West Delhis Moti Nagar to clean it and the same year a person had died while cleaning a septic tank without protection.

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