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Pune: Over 100 fire incidents, primarily caused by firecrackers, were reported across Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad during the Diwali festival. Fortunately, there were no reports of fatalities.The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits recorded 68 fire incidents from Oct 19 to 23. In the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) areas, 62 fire incidents caused by crackers were documented from Oct 17 to 23.Chief fire officers from both corporations confirmed that the majority of these fires were cracker-related, with a smaller number (around five in PMC and a "very small number" in PCMC) stemming from short circuits in Diwali lighting. Officials said proactive awareness campaigns and the strategic placement of fire tenders enabled rapid response to affected areas, effectively containing fires before they could escalate and cause widespread damage. Learning from previous years, both the PMC and PCMC fire departments intensified their awareness drives this festive season. PMC officials conducted a "firecracker safety awareness campaign," sensitising residents, particularly at firecracker stalls and in densely populated residential and commercial areas, on fire extinguisher operation and prevention. Devendra Potphode, chief fire officer, PMC, said that the leaves of all department staffers were cancelled, and they actively patrolled the areas, delivering safety messages via megaphones. "Despite all these measures, we still had 68 incidents," Potphode noted. "Five of them were short-circuit related, while the rest were all due to firecrackers. Incidents included garbage dumps catching fire from rockets, small fires on high-rise balconies from stray rockets, a warehouse fire, and a firecracker shop fire in Kharadi. However, the strategic positioning of fire tenders allowed us to attend to concerns quickly, preventing any casualties." The PCMC fire department, operating with 10 fire centres, received 74 calls from Oct 17 to 23. Umesh Dhakne, assistant commissioner, PCMC fire department, clarified, "Of these, 12 were not related to Diwali or firecrackers. All remaining fires were due to crackers, with a very small number also due to short circuits. It's worth highlighting that calls from densely populated areas like Chikhali and Khudalwadi, which were previously hard to reach, significantly decreased after the encroachment drive."
New Delhi (July 3, 2025): A fire broke out following a blast in an electrical transformer near the Trauma Centre of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Thursday afternoon, officials said. No injuries were reported. According to Delhi Fire Services (DFS), the call was received at 3:34 p.m. and eight fire tenders were sent to the location. The fire was brought under control by 3:55 p.m. "We received a call regarding a fire at the AIIMS Trauma Centre at 3:34 pm. We rushed eight fire tenders to the spot. The fire that was in a transformer was doused. No one received a ...Read More >
Kochi: Edison Babu's neighbours in Muvattupuzha knew him as the quiet engineer who had returned home during the pandemic. The 35-year-old former auto industry professional seemed to lead an unremarkable life in this sleepy Kerala suburb, occasionally visiting the local post office with packages: nothing unusual for someone running what appeared to be a small online business. What they didn't know was that their mild-mannered neighbour had built India's most sophisticated darknet drug empire, one that relied heavily on the very government postal service that was meant to serve the community. ...Read More >
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) St Stephen's College and St Thomas School here received bomb threats through email on Tuesday, prompting authorities to launch a thorough search operation, with officials saying nothing suspicious has been found so far. Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Raja Banthia said St Stephen's College reported that they received the bomb threat at 7:15 am. "The mail claimed that four IEDs and two RDX bombs have been planted on the premises and in the library of the college. It further claimed that those would explode by 2 pm," the police officer was quoted as saying in a st ...Read More >
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], July 17 (ANI): A comprehensive fire mock drill was conducted at the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate on Thursday in collaboration with the Telangana State Fire Department, aimed at enhancing emergency response systems and inter-departmental coordination during fire-related disasters. The drill featured a live demonstration by Madhapur Station Fire Officer Anjaneyulu Dodla, who briefed attendees on various fire safety tools, types of fire emergencies, and appropriate response methods. He also explained how to act during emergencies, the importance of remaining ca ...Read More >
New Delhi, Aug 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) Easing inflation and favourable monsoon boosted rural demand in India in the April-June period this year, outpacing urban consumption once again, according to a new report. According to the report by global research firm NielsenIQ, rural markets and small manufacturers propelled the packaged consumer goods sector in Q2 2025. Rural markets grew twice as fast as cities, as urban areas showed signs of recovery, particularly in smaller towns. According to the report, e-commerce also rose significantly, led by increased shopper penetration and spending, especia ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: A fire broke out at the Mother and Child Block of Delhi-AIIMS on Thursday evening, prompting authorities to rush 10 fire tenders to the spot. However, no casualty has been reported yet, an official of the Delhi Fire Services said. The DFS officer said a call regarding the fire was received at 5.15 pm. "We rushed 10 fire tenders to the hospital and firefighting operations are ongoing," he said. Patients and staff were safely evacuated from the affected area, and routine medical operations have been maintained or resumed where possible. The fire damaged certain sections, but ongoing ...Read More >
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A massive fire broke out in a private factory in the Bairagarh around 8 pm on Monday night, causing panic in the area. The fire broke out in a factory named Sign Vishwas Industries located in village Bhainsakhedi, where disposable boxes are made from aluminium. No casualty was reported in the incident Bairagarh ACP Aditya Singh said that this factory is located behind the Campion School. As soon as the information about the fire was received, the fire department was alerted and four fire tenders were sent to the spot. Of these, three vehicles were continuously engage ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], July 16 (ANI): After prominent schools in the national capital received bomb threats, personnel from the Delhi Police and Fire Department were immediately deployed to the spots. According to officials, fire tenders and police teams were dispatched to the premises of St. Thomas School and Vasant Valley School after they received bomb threats via email. The Fire Department stated that nothing suspicious has been found so far, and the investigation is ongoing. Earlier, St. Stephen College at Delhi University also received a bomb threat. The email claimed that a bomb had been ...Read More >
Trump India Tariffs Impact: US 50% tariffs on Indian exports take effect tomorrow, targeting textiles, seafood, gems, jewellery, and leather. Analysts warn the move could threaten millions of jobs and shave 0.5% off India's GDP. Back in his first term, Donald Trump had first called India as the "tariff king." Now, in his second stint in the White House, he has repeated that often and is now bringing the 50 per cent tariff hit for New Delhi. The order, Executive Order 14329, links the penalty to India's continued imports of Russian crude and defence hardware. For New Delhi, this isn't just ano ...Read More >
Pune: The office leasing market in Pune experienced a notable surge in the first half of 2025, continuing with the trend observed in 2024. This increase was primarily fuelled by Global Capability Centers (GCCs), which are the Indian technology hubs of multinational corporations, as they aggressively expanded their operations. The GCCs secured a larger proportion of available office spaces in the city during the initial six months of the year, with a particularly strong increase in activity during the April-June quarter.Reports indicate that the total office spaces leased in Pune from Jan to Ju ...Read More >
New Delhi: A man died after a three-storey shop building collapsed near Pul Mithai in North Delhi's Lohia Chowk area early on Friday, officials said. The shops were part of the Azad Market area. Manoj Sharma,46, an employee at one of the shops housed in the building, was trapped under the rubble of the collapsed structure. He was pulled out of the debris and taken to the Hindu Rao Hospital, where he was later declared dead, the official added. He said Sharma had been an employee of the shop for nearly three decades. Officials said that a truck parked in front of the building was also severel ...Read More >
Delhi schools faced repeated bomb threats, causing panic. Delhi Police are investigating, finding the emails hard to trace due to encryption. Senders used VPNs and the dark web for anonymity. Directorate of Education issued safety guidelines. Schools increased security measures. Police are exploring all possible angles, including terror links. Parents expressed fear and anxiety over the disruptions. A fresh wave of bomb threats targeting schools and colleges has kept Delhi Police on its toes as ...Read More >
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Two people died and four others were injured after a fire broke out at a house in east Delhi's Old Govindpura area on Tuesday evening, an official said. Police have identified the deceased as Tanveer (28) and Nusrat. A call was received at Jagatpuri police station at 8.46 pm regarding a fire incident at Band Gali, Old Govindpura, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said. When a police team reached the spot, it found that 10 people were trapped inside a residential building that caught fire, the DCP said. With the help of police personnel and fir ...Read More >
New Delhi: More than 20 schools in Delhi have received bomb threats via emails, officials said on Friday. According to the police, the Richmond Global School in Delhi's Paschim Vihar area has reported getting a bomb threat. The fire department and Delhi police rushed to the spot after receiving information about the bomb threats, the Department of Delhi Fire Services said. Further investigation is underway. This comes days after nearly ten schools and one college in the national capital received bomb threats via email over the last three days, prompting police action and temporary closures. ...Read More >
Medak: Telangana State BJP President N. Ramchander Rao on Friday appealed to the people to give the committed party an opportunity to meet the aspirations of the poor and downtrodden. Addressing a large gathering of party workers in Medak, the BJP chief remarked that citizens have experienced the rule of the BRS and the Congress party and have had bitter experiences with the deceitful practices of both. He urged people to support the BJP wholeheartedly in the upcoming local body elections as a way to teach the ruling Congress party a lesson for its unfulfilled promises. Rao emphasized that t ...Read More >
New Delhi: Six people, including a three-year-old child, were injured in five separate fire incidents reported across the city on Thursday.According to Delhi Fire Services (DFS), a fire was reported on Pankha Road in west Delhi's Janakpuri around 5.30am, in which two buses and a car were gutted. Two fire tenders were sent to the site. No casualties were reported. At 9.35am, a fire broke out in a house in southeast Delhi's New Friends Colony. According to police, a resident called workers to clean a sofa set in her home when a fire broke out. "It appears the thinner caught fire during the clean ...Read More >
Mumbai: Uddhav and Raj Thackeray will hold a joint protest march of their parties in the city on July 5 against what they allege is imposition of Hindi in the state's schools from Class 1 through the new three-language policy. This will be the first time they will come together on a political platform after Raj Thackeray's decision to quit Shiv Sena to form MNS nearly two decades ago.There has been speculation of a reunion of the estranged cousins for the coming civic polls, and the protest march is being seen as the first step in that direction, reports Chaitanya Marpakwar.Uddhav and Raj had ...Read More >
Pune: State Election Commission (SEC) will use the July 1, 2025, updated legislative assembly voters' list for the upcoming local body elections with chairperson Dinesh Waghmare directing district collectors and municipal commissioners to begin preparations based on the updated voter rolls during video conferences on Thursday and Friday.Elections are due for 29 municipal corporations, 290 nagar panchayats and parishads, 32 zilla parishads, and 336 panchayat samitis, as their terms have expired. "There is no separate voters' list for local body polls. The Election Commission of India (ECI)'s up ...Read More >
A goods train transporting high-speed diesel ignited near Tiruvallur on Sunday morning, prompting a swift response from fire tenders. While no casualties were reported, the incident led to the suspension of local train services and the cancellation of eight express trains. A goods train carrying high-speed diesel caught fire on Sunday morning near Tiruvallur, a Railway official said. The fire broke out in a wagon and quickly spread to others. No casualties have been reported, the official said ...Read More >
Thane, Aug 14 (PTI) A fire broke out at a cafe located in a multi-storey residential building in Maharashtra's Thane city early Thursday morning, following which 35 persons were evacuated from the structure, officials said. No casualty has been reported as of now, Thane Municipal Corporation's disaster management cell chief Yasin Tadvi said. The blaze erupted in the Parsik Cafe located on the ground floor of the six-storey building at Kharegaon in Kalwa (West), he said. The disaster management ...Read More >
New Delhi: The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has announced the rollout of its first made-in-India electric vehicle - the e-Vitara SUV - in a major boost to the green segment from its upgraded Gujarat plant, which is now set to become one of the world's largest automotive manufacturing hubs with a projected annual capacity of one million units. Crucially, this facility will serve as Suzuki's global production base for electric vehicles (EVs), exporting to over 100 countries, including advanced markets in Japan and Europe, which is aligned with India's vision of becoming a global aut ...Read More >
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A massive fire broke out at a paper roll manufacturing unit, Shri Ji Packaging Berol Laboratory, located in a industrial area near Ashoka Garden area of the capital city, around 7 PM on Sunday evening. Thick plumes of smoke were visible from over a kilometer away, triggering panic among nearby residents. According to Ashoka Garden Police, the administration has taken swift action to bring the blaze under control. A total of 15 to 20 police and fire brigade vehicles arrived at the scene, and efforts to extinguish the fire are ongoing. As of now, the fire has not been ...Read More >
Thiruvananthapuram: Ravada A Chandrasekhar took charge as the new State Police Chief on Tuesday. He succeeds Shaik Darvesh Saheb, who retired on June 30. His tenure will run until July 1, 2027. A 1991-batch IPS officer currently serving as Special Director with the Intelligence Bureau, Chandrasekhar is on central deputation. He was selected over Nitin Agarwal, who topped the official list of probables. The appointment order, issued by Kerala Chief Secretary Dr A Jayathilak on behalf of the Governor, was released soon after a cabinet meeting held on Monday. Hailing from Andhra Pradesh's Godav ...Read More >
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], July 4 (ANI): Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday came down heavily on the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) over its pitch to reconsider the words 'secular and socialist' from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution while saying that it was 'all talk'. He dared and challenged RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale and top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the centre to remove the words 'secular and socialist' from the Preamble. 'Days before, I heard that some RSS person said that we should remove Secular and Socialist words from ...Read More >
New Delhi: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) brought forward the deadlines for the complete biomining of legacy waste at three landfills -- Okhla, Bhalswa, and Ghazipur -- and the reclamation of land from Dec 2028 to Dec 2026. The information was shared by the civic body after a high-level review meeting on solid waste management in Delhi. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of the CM Rekha Gupta, urban development minister Ashish Sood, mayor Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh, MCD commissioner Ashwani Kumar and other officials.Singh said the discussions focused on 13 key agenda points, mainly ...Read More >
Mumbai: Panic gripped residents of a 19-storey residential tower in Kanjurmarg (East) after a fire broke out on Sunday morning in the electric duct of the building, leaving several people stranded on upper floors and the terrace.Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) received the call at 11:40am and classified the blaze at N G Royal Park as a Level I fire by 12:10pm. The blaze was confined to electrical wiring and installations inside the vertical duct stretching from the first to the 19th floor, with the most intense fire activity concentrated between the 16th and 18th floors.Three fire engines, one fire ...Read More >
Jammu- Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday reviewed the ongoing restoration work of the historic Mubarak Mandi complex, which was the power centre of the Dogra kings in Jammu, and stressed on enhancing its heritage appeal. The Mubarak Mandi Complex is one of Jammu's most significant architectural heritage sites and is envisioned as a comprehensive cultural centre, housing museums, conference venues and heritage hospitality services. Accompanied by Advisor Nasir Aslam Wani and MLA Yudhvir Sethi during the visit, the chief minister was briefed in detail on the multi-phas ...Read More >
New Delhi: Traffic in central Delhi will be affected on Thursday as the traffic police has issued an advisory due to the Janmashtami and Tazia processions.According to police, the traffic movement in Paharganj is likely to be affected from 1.30pm in view of the shobha yatra for Janmashtami and the Tazia procession.The Janmashtami procession will start from Mandir Shri Banke Bihari Ji in Paharganj's Sangatrasan Bazar and pass through Desh Bandhu Gupta Road, Chuna Mandi, Main Bazar, Munja Chowk and Arakashan Road. The Tazia procession will start from Ajmeri Gate and proceed through Pul Paharganj ...Read More >
While no casualties were reported in the incident at the TVS Motor showroom, the Pune Fire Brigade rescued a man stuck inside the service centre. A showroom and service centre of TVS Motor in Pune's Bund Garden Road caught fire, leaving as many as 60 two-wheelers gutted, Monday night. While no casualties were reported in the incident, the Pune Fire Brigade rescued a man stuck inside the service centre. Pune Fire Brigade officials said 60 vehicles, including new and old electric and petrol-oper ...Read More >
The number of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) cases continues to rise, with five new cases reported on Monday, bringing the ... The number of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) cases continues to rise, with five new cases reported on Monday, bringing the total number of suspected cases in Pune to 163. Among these, 47 patients have been discharged, 47 are in the ICU, and 21 are on ventilators. Of the infected, 32 are from the Pune Municipal Corporation area, 86 from surrounding villages, including 18 from Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, 19 from rural areas, and eight from other districts. The ...Read More >