1 day Ago By Gitesh Shelke
1 2 3 4 5 Pune: Many fires on hills and open areas in the city are caused by people partying here, who often drop cigarette butts on dry grass, fire brigade officials have said. "Our teams have found empty liquor bottles and cigarette butts at many of these incident sites. We believe that youngsters go to the top of the hills where they drink and smoke without taking due care.
When a fire breaks out they run away," city fire brigade chief Devendra Potphode said. In Feb, the department received 141 calls, a significant rise from 54 in Jan. The fire brigade attended to 430 calls of fires on hills or open areas last year, while the number was 289 in 2023.
Recently, there were fires at Taljai Hill, Sus Hill, Baner Hill, a hillock behind Warje, Dukkarkhind, Dhayari, Yevalewadi, and Katraj. Not all fires to the grass are started by these people, but this has become one of the major reasons, Potphode said. Similarly, the fire brigade responded to 111 calls of garbage burning in Feb against 82 such incidents in Jan.
Last year, 636 incidents of waste burning were reported, while 2023 saw 575 fires. "In many cases, especially near highways, garbage caught fire after some smoker threw burning cigarettes or matchsticks into it," Potphode said, adding most of the fires, however, were caused by excessive heat and clogging of methane gas. New fire station at Taljai Hill In view of the repeated fire calls from the hill and nearby slum pockets, the fire brigade has proposed a fire station at Taljai Hill, near Taljai temple.
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