VIJAYAWADA: Fire personnel are getting increasingly worried at the rise in fire mishaps due to leakage of domestic gas from refills and their burst due to careless handling in several parts of the state.
Although fire emergency calls are more every summer, what is causing concern in that of late most fire mishaps are related to domestic gas. A fireman, who went on a firefighting operation at a house following leakage of domestic gas from a refill, sustained injuries in the mishap at Ongole. In another case, a man died in a fire mishap following a cylinder burst in Krishna district. At the Kanaka Durga temple’s kitchen, there was a leakage of domestic gas when the pipeline carrying the gas at high pressure melted at a small portion and oil that was boiling spilled on the workers recently.
At Kakinada on Friday, a woman suffered burn injuries in her thatched house when three gas refills burst.
Fire authorities maintain that they are now confronted with electric short circuit, domestic gas leak and the burst of gas refills. They state that careless handling of domestic gas refills, gas tubes and gas pipelines in commercial establishments are resulting in fire mishaps. They pointed out carelessness is leading to refills being exposed sunlight.
Officials point out that as the day temperatures rise during summer peak, gas in refills gets expanded resulting in their blast. They have advised people to put refills in cooler places.
They noted that poor maintenance of equipment and usage of outdated equipment, especially in industries dealing with hazardous chemicals, was a reason for fire mishaps. Careless smoking, dumping of plastic bottles and bottles with leftover liquor, are also causing fire mishaps, especially in forest areas.
Regional fire officer G. Srinivasulu said, “We are planning to shortly take up awareness drives among the people on prime causes of fire mishaps and preventive measures to be taken up.”
Infographics:
- AP is reporting 40 to 100 fire emergency calls and this could touch 230 in May.
- AP reported 9,115 fire calls from April 2020 to February this year.
- Property worth '3,434 lakh was damaged.
