Surat fire services handled more than 200 fire and rescue calls over two days during Diwali, with garbage fires accounting for the largest share of incidents and the department extending firefighter duty hours to maintain emergency readiness.
According to data from the Surat Fire & Emergency Services (SFES), garbage fires generated 86 calls during the period. Firefighters also attended 28 house fires, 11 electric short-circuit incidents, 11 farm fires and four rescue operations.
The department recorded eight incidents involving hutments and four each involving shops and godowns. Nine calls each concerned vehicles and trees, while 10 incidents were classified as “other”. The records also listed four wood fires, three gas-related fires, and one incident each at a service station, scrap yard, firecracker shop and cattle shed.
Two people suffered minor burn injuries in a fire incident in Vesu, the report said. The location-specific details of the other incidents were not provided in the SFES data cited by the report.
The surge coincided with heightened fire risks during Diwali, when increased use of firecrackers, household activity and outdoor waste burning can place additional pressure on emergency-response systems. The figures show that the operational demand was not limited to residential fires: garbage, farms, electrical installations, vehicles, commercial premises and informal settlements all featured in the department’s call records.
SFES deployed 88 vehicles for firefighting and rescue operations during the two-day period. The mobilisation covered both fire suppression and rescue responses, indicating the scale of resources required to keep the city’s emergency network operational during a concentrated period of higher risk.
To increase personnel availability, SFES temporarily changed its duty schedule from the normal eight-hour shift to 12-hour shifts. Basant Pareek, chief fire officer of SFES, said the arrangement was intended to keep the maximum number of employees available while call volumes were elevated.
“SFES employees are posted on 12-hour shifts to ensure maximum personnel are present on duty instead of the normal eight-hour shifts,” Pareek said. He added that the longer schedule would remain in place for 48 hours before staff returned to routine duty hours.
The incident pattern also places the city’s routine waste-management and electrical-safety systems within the emergency-response picture. With garbage fires forming the largest category in the reported data, fire demand during festival periods is shaped not only by celebration-related risks but also by how combustible waste is stored, collected and managed across the urban area.
SFES’s response involved simultaneous coverage of residential areas, commercial premises, farms, informal settlements and transport-related incidents. The department’s next operational milestone is the return to regular eight-hour duty schedules after the temporary 48-hour deployment period, as stated by the chief fire officer.
