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The state of Uttarakhand is dealing with severe forest fires, the worst since 2021 when eight people died. A recent fire in the Varunavat hills near Uttarkashi town prompted a swift response from 16 firefighters of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and officials from the Uttarakhand forest department. The fire, which began on Wednesday evening, spread rapidly and threatened the town’s only fuel station and other important areas.

Operation to contain the blaze

The NDRF received a distress call about the fire around 7 pm on Wednesday. Inspector Tirepan Rawat, part of the NDRF team, explained that the flames were advancing quickly. The firefighters and forest officials had to climb the hills in the dark to stop the fire from reaching the fuel station, the district magistrate’s office, and a local market.

Teams were formed for different tasks: one team cleared the path of the fire, another used fire beaters to extinguish the flames, and a third created a firestop line by removing trees and bushes to prevent the fire from spreading further. After working through the night, the fire was brought under control by 6 am on Thursday. 

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Continued efforts and training

After containing the Varunavat fire, the team was sent to another hill in Vimleshwar, about 20 km away, where they successfully controlled a similar fire. The 16 NDRF personnel are part of a 150-member forest firefighting team trained last year.

NDRF’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Operations, Mohsen Shahedi, said, "The NDRF is now tasked with handling forest fires. Teams are deployed in Nainital, Pauri, and Uttarkashi to help state agencies prevent these fires from reaching human habitats."

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Since November, five people have died, and at least 1,196 hectares of land have been ravaged by forest fires in Uttarakhand. In the past week alone, the state has experienced 540 forest fires. Weather officials reported that Imphal has recorded 2 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours and expect generally cloudy skies with occasional rain or thunderstorms for the next six days.