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Shimla Fire and Emergency Safety Guide

Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh, a hill town strung along ridges at about 2,200 metres, with old wooden buildings, narrow lanes and steep slopes. This guide puts the emergency numbers, the fire stations and the main local risks on one page, with dated examples from the city.

Checked 15 Nov 2026 Incidents update automatically. Emergency card for the fridge or your phone
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112Emergency 101Fire 108Ambulance 100Police
1077 Disaster ManagementToll free district disaster management number on the Shimla district website 0177-2629945 State Fire Directorate officeOffice line of the Directorate of Fire Services in Shimla. For an emergency use 101, not this line

112: Listed with 100 as the police number on the Shimla district website. Works from any phone · 101: Listed as Fire on the Shimla district website. If 101 does not connect, call 112 · 108: Listed with 102 as the medical helpline on the Shimla district website. If it does not connect, call 112 · 100: Listed on the Shimla district website. Also reachable through 112

Take these numbers with you

Print the Shimla emergency card for the fridge or the front door, and cut out the wallet cards. It holds 112, 101, the ambulance and police numbers, and the Shimla fire, disaster and civic numbers from this guide. There are blank lines for your family contacts and the nearest hospital.

Download city emergency card (PDF, A4) Print in black and white (PDF, saves ink) Save as phone picture (WebP, made for a phone lock screen)

Checked 15 November 2026. Numbers can change; re-check them before you rely on them.

Latest incidents in Shimla

  1. No case studies from this city yet.
Open the full Incident Map See incidents near Shimla on the map

Local risks in Shimla

Old wooden buildings and narrow lanes

Many old buildings in Shimla are built or floored with wood, they stand close together, and the wiring is often old. The city fire plan says household fires are very common every winter from overheating and electric faults, and about 28 per cent of surveyed households had met some fire accident.

Lower Bazar fire of January 2016

At about 3 am on 9 January 2016, fire tore through the densely packed shops of Lower Bazar. The city fire plan lists it with the Gorton Castle fire of January 2014 and says more than 50 heritage buildings have been lost to fire since 1875.

Summer Hill temple landslide, August 2023

On the morning of 14 August 2023, a landslide above the Shiv Bawdi temple at Summer Hill buried the temple and 20 people died. A later study blamed a choked underground water channel and incessant rain, with the ground subsiding for four to five days beforehand.

Forest fire season

The city fire plan says forest fires are an annual event in Himachal, the season starting in mid-April when there has been no rain for months. It adds that they are not very prominent inside the city itself, so the risk is mostly to the edge of town and the slopes around it.

Earthquake, heavy snow and crowds

The city plan lists earthquake, landslide, heavy snowfall, flash flood, domestic fire, stampede and falling trees among the hazards of Shimla, and notes that not every ward faces all of them. The Mall and the Ridge are the main tourist centres of the city.

Fire stations in Shimla

3 stations. Tap Call to ring the station office.

StationAreaContact
Mall Fire StationShimla Fire Division · The MallCall0177-2652939
Tilak Nagar Fire StationShimla Fire Division · Tilak NagarCall0177-2830664
Chhota Shimla Fire StationShimla Fire Division · Chhota ShimlaCall0177-2623269

Three city stations are listed with phone numbers in the Shimla fire plan of 2020 to 2021; the plan's own text names Boileauganj as the third station, so confirm before relying on a number. In an emergency, call 112 or 101 first; station lines are office numbers.

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Shimla at a glance

Population
1,69,578 in Shimla Municipal Corporation (Census 2011), about 1.7 lakh
Area and height
About 35.34 sq km, at an average height of 2,205 metres
Fire stations
Three in the city, on the Mall, at Chhota Shimla and a third at Tilak Nagar or Boileauganj, with the state Fire Directorate also based in Shimla
Heritage
The fire plan lists a separate set of heritage buildings in Shimla, mostly British era and many of them wooden
Emergency system
Dial 112; fire is 101, ambulance 108, police 100 and the district disaster line 1077

More tools: emergency wallet card, extinguisher chooser

Temperature and rainfall in Shimla