Hyderabad tops as Telangana reports a fire every 30 minutes

The rise in fire incidents has also resulted in higher property losses.

Hyderabad: Telangana has recorded a sharp increase in fire emergencies this year, with the state fire services department responding to nearly one call every 30 minutes, the highest number of which are in Hyderabad.

Official data shows that fire and rescue teams attended 8,914 incidents between January 1 and July 12. Later year, it was 6,273 cases during the same period.

Property losses increase

The rise in fire incidents has also resulted in higher property losses. Fires destroyed property worth Rs 406.54 crore this year. Last year, it was Rs 365.17 crore.

Despite the increase in incidents, firefighters prevented much larger losses by saving property valued at Rs 1,117.95 crore while carrying out rescue and firefighting operations.

Department records show that 8,187 of the reported cases were small fires. There were also 170 medium, 62 serious, and 25 major fires.

Apart from firefighting, personnel responded to 399 rescue operations and 71 other emergency calls.

Farmlands recorded the highest number of fire incidents at 2,440, followed by refuse and outdoor storage areas with 2,372 cases.

Other locations affected included residential houses (609), miscellaneous structures (440), forests and plantations (420), rail and road vehicles (353), shops and offices (229), storage facilities (222) and industrial units (166).

Carelessness remains the biggest cause

Human negligence continued to be the leading reason behind fire accidents.

According to the data, carelessness was responsible for 4,622 incidents. It was followed by electrical short circuits (1,843) and unknown causes (1,127).

Smaller numbers of fires were linked to arson (139), gas leaks (123) and burning waste (84).

Hyderabad records highest number of fire calls

Among all districts, Hyderabad reported the highest number of fire emergencies with 875 calls.

It was followed by Khammam (691), Rangareddy (524), Nizamabad (415), Karimnagar (413) and Medchal (404).

Even though fire emergencies increased sharply, the number of deaths fell significantly.

A total of 29 people lost their lives in fire accidents this year. Last year, there was 116 deaths during the same period.