[MINUS]

Delhi government plans to set up 20 more fire stations in the next two years. This was said by chief minister Sheila Dikshit while speaking at the passing out parade of the 63rd batch of fire operators in the capital on Saturday. At present there are 50 fire stations.

Dikshit said fire-fighting process in Delhi had become hi-tech as threat of fire got more and more complicated due to mushrooming of high-rise buildings and also due to narrow lanes in unplanned localities.

DFS chief R C Sharma said land had been acquired for construction of 12 fire stations at various places in the capital and work was in progress at eight sites.

According to an official release of Delhi Fire Service (DFS), city reported an average of 43 incidents of fire per day in 2008-09 and 380 people lost their lives while 2,225 were injured in incidents of fire. The release also stated that DFS attended to over 16,000 incidents of fire and managed to save property worth Rs 295 crore during the period.

The CM said that three disaster management centres had been equipped with state-of-the-art equipments. She also exhorted people to install fire-safety appliances in their buildings and take appropriate preventive measures.

Source : Times of India