New Delhi: Delhi Fire Service (DFS) got 257 emergency calls on Diwali this year, including 214 fire-related calls and 24 incidents involving cracker fires.While the city saw several major blazes in factories, a godown, a banquet hall and on residential premises, the overall number of emergency calls was lower than last year when the department got 269 calls.Abhilash Kumar Malik, chief fire officer of DFS, said the highest number of calls came between 8pm and 10pm on Nov 8. The fire department got 85 calls in these two hours. Between 10pm and midnight, another 61 calls went to the firefighters.The department got 16 calls between midnight and 7am, 36 between 7am and 2pm, 14 between 2pm and 4pm, 13 between 4pm and 6pm, and 32 between 6pm and 8pm on Nov 8.One fatal incident was recorded during the period.Six people were injured and five Delhi Fire Service personnel also suffered injuries while responding to emergencies. “We also found a decomposed body in a house in Haiderpur Plant area,” a fire official said. A station officer from Paschim Vihar suffered burns in his right hand while working at Nangli Sakrawati, while another officer fractured his hand during a fire in a godown in Libaspur. Other personnel suffered injuries during operations in different parts of the city.Among the major incidents, a medium-level fire broke out at two adjacent factories in Nangli Sakrawati around 5.25pm on Nov 8. Later, in the evening, a major fire was reported in a factory in Narela industrial area.Another fire broke out in an NDMC godown beneath the Safdarjung flyover near Safdarjung airport.In the early hours of Nov 9, the department responded to fires in a banquet hall in Pooth Kalan, a residential apartment in Madhu Vihar, a factory at New Krishna School in Prakash Vihar, Karawal Nagar, and a shop at Chhota Bazar in Shahdara.A comparison of Diwali-related calls over the past few years shows that the department received 257 calls in 2026, against 269 in 2025 and 318 in 2024. The figure stood at 208 in 2023, 201 in 2022 and 152 in 2021.The department’s peak 12-hour call volume, covering the evening of Diwali and the early hours of the following day, stood at 281 this year.This was marginally lower than the 283 calls in 2025 and significantly lower than the 320 calls in 2024.
