Firefighters on standby this Diwali: what cities arrange, what the data shows, and how you can help them

On the night we light our diyas, hundreds of people in each big city are sitting in fire stations with their leave cancelled and their engines facing the gate. This page is about them. We looked up what fire services have said they are arranging for Diwali 2026, what the figures from earlier Diwali nights show, and what ordinary people can do so that a firefighter’s job becomes a little easier. We have kept to what we could open and check, and we say where we could not find something. Diwali is on 8 November 2026. Checked 5 November 2026.

In short

• Fire services in many cities have cancelled leave and put engines at markets for the festival. For 2026 we found this reported for Surat, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Pune and Gurugram, and a leave order for officials in Uttar Pradesh.
• Diwali is one of the busiest nights of the year for them. Delhi’s fire service reported 117 to 318 fire-related calls on Diwali night in 2021 to 2025, while its average over the whole of 2025 worked out to about 98 calls a day of all kinds.
• Most calls are small fires from crackers, diyas and rubbish. The standby exists for the one small fire that becomes a big one.
• You can help in simple ways: call 101 or 112 early and give the exact location, keep lanes, gates and hydrants clear, give way to the engine, stay back and do not film in their way.

What fire services have arranged for Diwali 2026

These are press reports of what each department or civic body has said. We did not see the original orders, and the numbers are not like for like, so please read them as a picture of the effort and not as a league table.

• Surat: leave has been cancelled for more than 1,000 officers and staff for the three main days, about 100 fire vehicles will be on 24-hour standby across the city’s nine zones, all 27 stations are on alert, shifts run to 12 hours and weekly offs are cancelled. The Chief Fire Officer was reported as saying that Surat gets more than 150 fire calls every Diwali. Mobile terminals in the vehicles are meant to send the nearest station after a call to 112 (Loktej, 28 October 2026).
• Ahmedabad: more than 1,100 fire personnel and over 65 ambulances on round-the-clock standby, all 18 fire stations on high alert, quick-response vehicles and motorcycles with water-mist equipment for narrow lanes, and temporary emergency points planned in crowded markets such as Kalupur and Relief Road. The 108 service has a direct line to four hospitals with burns and trauma wards. The report says burns and traffic accidents typically rise by 15 to 20 per cent in the festival days (Gujarat Samachar, 2 November 2026).
• Jaipur: the Municipal Corporation has posted fire vehicles and staff at its 12 fire stations, 11 police stations and four other control points from 6 to 11 November, in two 12-hour shifts, with all permanent and temporary firefighters on duty (Khaskhabar, 4 November 2026).
• Pune: leave has been cancelled for officers and personnel for round-the-clock availability, and fire tenders will patrol the areas around cracker stalls. The control room can be reached on 101 or 020-2645 1707 (Free Press Journal, 23 October 2026).
• Gurugram: fire engines with crews have been placed at 11 busy spots, including Sadar Bazaar, Sikandarpur Market and Sohna Road, with all staff leave cancelled for a week and crews on duty 24 hours (Amar Ujala, 3 November 2026).
• Uttar Pradesh: the Chief Minister has cancelled the leave of officials and staff and told the fire department to stay on high alert for Diwali and Chhath. No tender count was given (Aaj Tak, 4 November 2026).

Delhi

We did not find a Delhi Fire Service announcement for Diwali 2026 in the reports we could open on 5 November. What we did find for 2026 is the Dussehra arrangement: fire tenders on standby at 10 major sites and about 50 quick-response vehicles in crowded areas, with the department saying its turnout time, from the call to the engine leaving the station, is about one minute (ETV Bharat, 19 October 2026). For Diwali 2025, the department had said that all 66 stations were on high alert, leave was cancelled, and 17 large tenders and 24 quick-response vehicles were placed at key locations from 5 pm to midnight on 19 and 20 October (ETV Bharat, 17 October 2025). For Diwali 2024 the director said about 3,200 firefighters would be on duty, with equipment at 39 locations and all leave and day-offs cancelled for two days (The Patriot, 28 October 2024). A similar plan would not be a surprise this year, but we cannot confirm it.

Kolkata and Bengal

Kali Puja falls on the same night. We found no fire-service numbers for 2026. In 2025 the state’s minister said 51 temporary fire stations would be set up in the Kolkata, Barasat and Naihati areas for Kali Puja, with motorcycles carrying firefighting equipment (Millennium Post, 16 October 2025). This year’s guidelines for Kali Puja pandals, issued after the Chorbagan crowd crush, are reported to require fire tenders to reach a fire within 15 minutes (IANS, 1 November 2026).

Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad

We found no 2026 standby figures for these cities from a source we could open. For earlier years, Tamil Nadu’s fire and rescue service was reported in 2024 to have about 8,000 personnel on duty statewide, with 800 at Chennai’s 43 stations (DT Next), and in Telangana fire-related calls were counted at 44 on Diwali 2025, almost all of them minor (Deccan Chronicle). We are not guessing numbers for the rest.

What the numbers show, and what they do not

People say fire calls rise every year. The reports show something more careful: Diwali is reliably one of the busiest nights, but the count does not climb in a straight line, partly because departments count different hours in different years.

• Delhi, fire-related calls on Diwali night: 117 in 2021, 201 in 2022, 208 in 2023, 318 in 2024 (reported as the highest in 13 years), and 269 till midnight in 2025, with about 400 by 6 am. These are the same figures as on our Diwali fire data page, and the windows differ, so the years cannot be ranked strictly. In 2024, when people celebrated on two days, the director also said the department counted about 320 calls on 31 October and about 400 on 1 November, and that about 100 of them were garbage fires (The Indian Express video).
• Delhi on a normal day: about 98 calls a day of all kinds in 2025, from 35,865 calls in the year (Newslaundry, quoting the service). Even the fire-only count of 269 for the evening is more than two and a half times that daily average.
• Pune: the department’s counts of Diwali fire incidents were 21 in 2021, 19 in 2022, 35 in 2023, 60 in 2024 and 43 in 2025. A separate newspaper count for 21 to 23 October 2025 gave 68, so even in one city the window matters.
• Pimpri-Chinchwad: 74 Diwali fires in 2023 and 99 in 2024, as reported for the fire department.
• Ahmedabad, 2025: 254 fire calls from 18 to 23 October, about 130 of them rubbish fires set off by crackers, with 40 house fires and 19 shop fires, and one death in a factory fire (Gujarat Samachar).
• Surat: more than 150 calls every Diwali, as the Chief Fire Officer was reported to say.

Two things stand out. First, a large share of the calls are small: rubbish, a rocket on a roof, a diya that tipped over. Reports for Delhi in 2023 and 2025 and for Pune in 2025 mentioned no casualties from them. That is not luck alone; it is an engine arriving before the small fire grows. Second, a call is not a fire and not a casualty, and we found no all-India count of firefighters on Diwali duty or of Diwali fire calls, so these cities are examples, not the whole country.

The people behind the standby

Standby means more than one engine at a crossing. In the reports it means cancelled leave and weekly offs, 12-hour shifts, small quick-response vehicles and motorcycles that can enter a lane where a big tender cannot, a control room that routes the call to the nearest station, and, in Ahmedabad, a hotline to the hospital burns ward. All of it rests on people who spend the festival away from their own families.

It is also fair to say that these services are stretched. Reports on Delhi in 2026 said it has about 71 stations and 3,633 sanctioned posts, of which about 1,030 were vacant according to RTI replies (ThePrint, 10 June 2026), and that the usual benchmark for a city is a first response in three to five minutes. At national level, the Home Ministry told the Rajya Sabha in 2019 that India had 3,377 fire stations against 8,559 required; our pages on fire stations India needs and on fire service gaps (see the related list below) explain the limits of those figures. Delhi’s fire service says the engine leaves the station in about a minute. What happens after that depends partly on the road, and that is where we can help.

How you can help a firefighter do the job

1. Call 101 or 112 early, not after you have tried everything. A Deputy Fire Officer in Pimpri-Chinchwad put it plainly in 2025: “Whether the fire is small or big, contact the fire department immediately.” Our page on the fire brigade number says what the operator will ask.
2. Give the exact location. Say the area, the nearest landmark, the building or shop name, the floor, and what is burning (rubbish, shop, cylinder, wiring). Stay on the line until the operator ends the call, and keep your phone free.
3. Send someone to the main road to guide the engine, if you can do so without risk. In a maze of lanes that saves minutes.
4. Keep lanes, gates and hydrant points clear. Do not park in front of a cracker market, a society gate or a hydrant cover on Diwali evening. Societies can keep the gate open with a watchman at it, and keep the keys of the terrace, lift room and meter room with someone present.
5. Give way. When you hear the siren, move to the left, stop if you must, and do not follow the engine closely. A firefighter in Delhi told a reporter that people hardly ever give way to fire trucks or ambulances (ThePrint, June 2026). We can change that.
6. Do not crowd the scene. Crowds block hoses and exits, and a wall or hoarding can fall. Stay well back, and keep children away.
7. Do not film in their way. Keep your distance, never stand between the engine and the fire, never fly a drone, and do not shout instructions. If you do record, share only after the incident, and not with a rumour or an unchecked toll attached.
8. Do not fight a fire with whatever is at hand. A small fire in a pan or on a dustbin can be smothered with sand or a lid, or put out with an extinguisher if you have been trained. Never throw water on oil, a live electrical fire or a gas cylinder, and never go back inside. See how to use a fire extinguisher (PASS) and fire buckets.
9. Tell the crew what you know: whether anyone is inside, where the cylinders, crackers or chemicals are, and which way the building opens. Then step back and let them work.
10. Stall and shop owners: sell only under a valid licence, keep stock to the quantity and place the licence allows, and keep buckets of water and extinguishers at the stall, as the Jaipur notice asks. Do not allow smoking or open flame near stock. Our page on cracker storage explains why a stock in a shop or home is the real hazard.
11. Report violations to the authorities, not to a crowd. If you see a stall selling without a licence or a godown packed with crackers, tell the police or your local fire office, or call 112 if there is a risk right now.
12. Light crackers so that nobody needs to call them. Open space, a bucket of water and sand, one at a time, cotton clothes, children supervised. Our Diwali crackers guide has the full list, and eye injury and burns and clothes on fire tell you what to do in the first minutes.

A thank-you

While we are with our families, the people at the station are on shift. They will be resting, checking hoses and waiting for the phone to ring. When it does, they go, whatever the hour and wherever the lane. Fire work carries real risk; our page on the Jodhpur Basni factory fire reports three firefighter deaths after initial injuries, and the Nagaur godown blast shows the kind of cracker stock they are sometimes sent to. We do not have a verified count of firefighters hurt on festival duty, so we will not quote one. We do know that a calm caller, a clear lane and a few steps back from the scene make their work easier.

So, on Diwali night, here is a small list for all of us: keep their number saved, keep the lane open, give way, stay back, and say thank you. If a fire station is near your home and it suits them, you could stop by after the festival to say it in person. To every firefighter, fire control room operator, ambulance crew and police officer on duty this Diwali: thank you.

Do these today

• Save 101 and 112 on your phone, and tell your family where the nearest fire station is. Our emergency numbers page lists them.
• Look at your lane and your society gate: where would an engine stop, and what would block it?
• Put a bucket of water and a bucket of sand where you will light crackers.
• Read our festival home fire safety checklist and, if you are travelling, what the data shows on road accidents during Diwali.

What we could not confirm

We could not find a Delhi Fire Service announcement for Diwali 2026, or 2026 standby numbers for Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad or Kolkata, in reports we could open on 5 November; these may be published in the next few days, and we will update this page. Every figure above comes from press reports of what departments said, not from a department document, and the Surat, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Pune, Gurugram and Uttar Pradesh arrangements are each from one report. The counting windows for fire calls differ between cities and years. We found no all-India figure for firefighters on duty, for Diwali fire calls, or for firefighters injured on festival duty, and no official average response time for Delhi; the one-minute figure is the turnout time the department quotes, not the time to reach you. The Delhi vacancy and station numbers differ between reports, and the national station figure dates from 2019. This page is general information and not an official statement of any fire service.