VELLORE:Continuous and welcome rains for the past three days - Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - also brought one additional good tiding: it reduced the cracker-related fire accidents to negligible numbers. However, for cracker-retail outlets, the rains were not all good news. Sales in several outlets remained tepid due to the rains.
Meenakshi Vijayakumar, deputy director of Fire and Rescue services claimed there were only 50 rescue-related calls made in the three days; all calls related to seeking assistance pertaining to incidences of trees falling and water logging.
“Our enquiries with hospitals across the district revealed that there were some 27 fire-related injuries, all of them minor with patients being treated as out-patients. We did not receive calls for such fire-related injuries,” she said.
The 665 member Fire and Rescue team which includes 80 commandos (of whom 40 commandos were sent to Cuddalore district where reports of rain-related accidents were far more) in all 47 stations with 54 water-tenders, 9 mini-water tenders and 3 emergency rescue-tenders spread across the districts of Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram were kept on the ready for any emergency.