Jammu: The Fire and Emergency Services Department on Monday refuted allegations that fire tenders took approximately one-and-a-half hours to reach the site of the Warehouse Nehru Market blaze here, saying available records and CCTV footage do not substantiate the charges.
According to a statement issued by the department tonight, the emergency call regarding the incident at the market was received at 9:18 pm on Sunday and three fire tenders reached the site within 10 minutes.
The CCTV footage recorded at Asian Hotel Crossing shows additional fire tenders proceeding towards the site at 9:38 pm, it said.
“The available records clearly indicate the movement and deployment of fire tenders and do not support claims of a one-and-a-half-hour delay in the arrival of Fire and Emergency Services,” the statement said.
The Warehouse Nehru Market Federation on Monday announced a shutdown of Jammu’s largest wholesale grain market till Wednesday in support of the demand for strict action against Fire and Emergency Services officials whose alleged negligence contributed to the massive fire that gutted 10 shops the previous night.
Federation president Deepak Gupta claimed that the fire services responded very slow and the fire tenders reached the site 90 minutes after the fire broke out in the market, damaging 10 shops.
The fire department said a total of 18 fire tenders from different fire stations and strategically deployed locations were mobilised after the information of the blaze at the premises that contained grocery and ration items, including cooking oil and ghee.
“The fire was brought under control within approximately one-and-a-half hours, after which cooling operations were undertaken to ensure that there was no further spread or recurrence,” the statement said, adding seven shops sustained fire damage, while a large number of adjoining shops were saved by the timely intervention.
The statement said the firefighting operation was carried out with the assistance of police, SDRF and the district administration.
It said the department responded to an exceptionally high number of fire incidents during the last 24 hours, with over 60 incidents reported across Jammu province, including 35 in Jammu district alone.
Particularly, 16 fire incidents were reported in Jammu district within a span of approximately five hours, from 7 pm onwards on November 8, including multiple major fire emergencies at different locations.
These incidents required simultaneous deployment of firefighting resources and extensive mobilization of departmental manpower and equipment, placing considerable demands on the department’s operational capacity during the Diwali festive period, it said.
In view of Diwali, the statement said the department had made advance deployment of fire tenders at strategic locations across Jammu district, including Gole Market, Gandhi Nagar and Gangyal, to ensure prompt response to any emergency.
Besides these deployments, regular fire stations also remained operational and responded to the reported incidents, it added.
