Record heat, surging blazes push Delhi’s firefighters to the brink

Firefighters try to join hoses so they can reach a rooftop during a blaze in textile shops at a market area in the old quarter of New Delhi, India. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Indervir Singh has worked for the Delhi Fire Services for 32 years but he cannot recall responding to as many fires as this summer.

Temperatures in India’s capital, New Delhi, home to about 20 million people, have hit record highs, with the mercury climbing to nearly 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) on several occasions.

Calls reporting fires between April and June more than doubled from a year ago, crossing 9,000, fire services data show. Deaths from fires more than tripled in that period, from just 10 a year ago.

Many of the blazes are in New Delhi’s teeming old quarter, where the narrow lanes are crammed with shops and homes, and webs of electricity cables and other wires hanging from poles.

“I have attended to several back-to-back calls” on recent shifts, said Singh, 54, before he rushed to the scene of yet another blaze in his thick jacket, heavy boots and red helmet.

Singh was among more than a dozen firefighters and officers interviewed by the Reuters news agency, many of whom described working in “doubly” strenuous conditions of extreme heat and numerous fires.

Shifts for firefighters are 24 hours long, followed by a day of rest. Senior officers work three full-day shifts at a time and then take a day off.

“Some weeks, we have to take leave just to get some sleep,” said officer Ajay Sharma.

Fire officers say electrical failures are responsible for nearly three-quarters of the blazes this summer. With New Delhi sweating through what the weather office says is one of its longest heatwaves on record, demand for air cooling has surged.

The India Meteorological Department classified nine heatwave days in New Delhi in June, up sharply from the historic norm of one during the month. Scientists say the heat is being worsened by human-driven climate change.

Firefighter Sijender Kumar, 54, pulls a water pipe as he and others try to extinguish a fire that broke out at a car scrapyard. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze as smoke billows from burning garbage at the Ghazipur landfill site. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Indervir Singh, 54, a firefighter, drinks water as he sits inside a fire truck after an operation to control a fire that broke out at a car scrapyard in New Delhi. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

"It's not some light work. It's like risking death," said 43-year-old firefighter Rajesh Dabhas as he stopped to catch his breath amid a blaze in May that destroyed five shops in the old quarter of the city. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Summer is a particularly busy time for the Delhi Fire Services. The searing heat and lack of moisture in the air speed up the combustibility of materials, said India Meteorological Department scientist Soma Sen Roy. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Shanti, 35, cries as she stands next to her charred home after a fire broke out in a slum area in New Delhi. "I have lost everything," said the vegetable seller. "We were happy in this small house but ... will have to start a new life once again." [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

A crowd watches an ongoing fire in textile shops at a market area in the old quarter of the city. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Firefighters help a colleague put on an oxygen mask before extinguishing a fire in a factory at an industrial area. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Firefighters try to extinguish a blaze in a market area in the old quarter of the Indian capital. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

A firefighter drinks water as smoke rises from burning vehicles at a car scrapyard. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

An exhausted firefighter sits near a fire truck during an ongoing blaze in textile shops at a market. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]