
LUCKNOW: A major fire broke out in to the tents of Sector 19 at the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj on Sunday. There was no report of any casualty or injury.
Meanwhile, several currency notes kept in the affected tents were gutted in the inferno. The fire, which had started from the tent of Geeta Press in Sector 19 engulfed around 40 big and small tents in the area. The fire believably was triggered by the leakage of gas cylinder leading to the blast in a number of cylinders being used by the devotees in the area.
Meanwhile, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, who had conducted an aerial survey of the Mahakumbh area on Sunday morning, rushed the senior officials to the affected Sector 19 and reached the site of the mishap himself to take stock of rescue and relief work.
Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also had a conversation with CM Yogi over the phone to get a sense of the situation after the incident. The CM briefed the PM about the incident and the operation carried out by the authorities to douse the flames within just 10-15 minutes.
“Two cylinders exploded in Sector 19 of the Mahakumbh Mela, causing a massive fire in the camps.” Akhara Police Station In-charge Bhaskar Mishra said.
“Firefighters were pressed into service to douse the blaze,” added Mishra. Visuals from the site showed plumes of smoke emerging. Upon receiving information, fire tenders reached the spot, and efforts got underway to extinguish the flames.
Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were also engaged in the rescue work and dousing the flames.
Mahakumbh Chief Fire Officer RK Pandey said that the fire was doused and the situation was under total control.
The Mahakumbh began on January 13 and will continue until February 26. As of January 19, more than 77.2 million pilgrims have taken a dip at the Sangam Triveni during the Maha Kumbh 2025.
The CFO said no casualty was reported and firemen had controlled the fire. Besides, the Fire Brigade, teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and SDRF were already on the incident site engaged in relief and rescue work.
It was the seventh day of the world’s biggest religious congregation of humanity. Significantly, ruling out any casualty or injury to anyone, Prayagraj DM Ravindra Kumar Mandar said that he got the information about the fire at the Geeta Press tent in Sector 19 around 4:30 pm. “As the fire broke out in Geeta press tent, it spread to 10 adjacent tents of Prayagwal. The fire teams along with police and district administration teams rushed to the site and doused the flames immediately. There has been no loss of life or injury to anyone. The situation is normal and well under control,” said the DM.
Notably, in the Mahakumbh area, in order to handle any fire or fire-related accidents, four articulating water towers (AWT) equipped with advanced features have been installed. LWTs are normally used in high-rise buildings as it can douse the fire to a height of 35 metres.
Moreover, as per the official sources, in order to make the Mahakumbh area fire-free, over 350 fire brigade, 50 fire brigade stations, 20 fire post have been installed along with the deployment of over 2000 trained manpower with expertise in handling fire accidents.
Meanwhile, in the Akhara area, other tents are equipped with fire protection equipment to send across the alarm so that any exigency could be catered to in time.
As per the mela authorities including the deputy commandant, the investigation into the reasons of fire were being investigated.