Hyderabad: The careless dumping of cigarette butts has led to 2,754 fire accidents in Telangana in 2021, said a report by fire department officials.
According to the Telangana Fire department officials, as many as 2,754 fire accidents in 2021 were caused by extinguished cigarette butts alone, incurring a loss of crores of rupees.
Telangana Regional Fire Officer V Papaiah, as reported by Deccan News, said that people carelessly throw away cigarette butts in homes, offices, and open spaces such as parks and garbage dumps, which leads to fires.
"In such instances, the flammable material gradually catches fire and then ignites. Imagine the scope of the fire and loss if it is an office building that's closed for the day by the time the fire starts," the official stated.
According to the State Disaster and Fire Services Department, last year's fire accidents caused property damage of Rs 1,991.70 crore.
Telangana had 7,899 fire incidents in 2020 that resulted in property damage of Rs 2,309.20 crore.
According to ABP Desam, in 2021, the number of fire accidents and the damage caused has come down slightly as compared to the previous year.
The report further said that firefighters have rescued 30 people from fire accidents last year and assets worth about Rs 1,501 crore could be secured.
Also, ten crew members lost their lives during the fire rescue and mock drills were conducted at various locations, with 10,004 awareness seminars for fire hazard control last year.
(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com//amp)