Authorities in this district remained on the alert today, a day after panic gripped Lawrence School, Sanawar with a blaze in a nearby jungle advancing towards it forcing shifting of students to a safer open area in the residential institution.
Residents in the area accused the Forest Department of having a "lackadaisical" attitude and not taking steps to prevent forest fires including carrying out controlled fire exercises ahead of the summer season.
They said forest fires were causing "massive" damage to the environment in the region.
"There has been no major incident of fire that has been reported today" in the Kasauli-Solan area, Deputy Commissioner, Solan, Rakesh Kanwar told PTI.
However, smoke could be seen in certain forest areas along the Kalka-Shimla highway.
The fire which caused panic yesterday here near 169-year-old Lawrence School here had been brought under control.
There was no damage caused to the institution and students and staff had been taken to a safer open area in the boarding school premises, Kanwar said.
Ashu Kapil, a teacher from Kasauli working in another school here, said the situation was much better as compared to what it was yesterday.
State government officials maintained the blaze occurred as highly inflammable dry pine needles caught fire.
Authorities in the hill state are keeping a close vigil on forest fires and have taken steps as there has been a concern among the people with such fires occurring in several parts including areas through which railway lines like the 113-year-old Shimla-Kalka toy train corridor, pass.
The British-era toy train, which runs along a 96-km narrow gauge track, and other trains in the state chug through chir, oak and pine forests.
Sanjay Kumar Gera, a station superintendent, said railway personnel are on alert but the main task of handling forest fires is that of the disaster management wing of the state government.
"We are in touch with them," he said.
The officials said the frequency of forest fires this year has not been alarming and with periodical rains, they have got naturally extinguished.
Showers in Shimla and Solan districts have helped in putting out the fires in some forest areas, they said.
A major tourist attraction, the Shimla-Kalka toy train was made operational in 1903 and the track has 102 tunnels. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008.
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Headmaster Singh said a Brigadier-rank Army officer had called him up and offered help. "But we said there is no such situation. Had there been any such situation, we would have taken their help," he said, adding that forest fires were a natural phenomenon and they occurred frequently during summer.
However, he blamed the "rumour mongers" for creating "unnecessary panic" about the safety of the children.
"There was a huge amount of misinformation about the safety of our school children as rumour mongers created panic with false information," he said.
Singh said he had been attending to calls from panicked parents since yesterday from within the country and abroad.
"We are telling the worried parents that there is no need to worry as the children are safe," he said.
Set up in 1991, Pinegrove School is located in the hills. The school has another branch in Subathu in Solan.
"Sometimes, dry pine needles catch fire which is common in summer. There is a thick growth of pine trees in the area of Solan, Kasauli and Kandaghat," Kanwar said, adding, the forest officials along with police and local villagers carry out awareness campaign to prevent such fire incidents.
He maintained that forest officials were conducting controlled fire exercises by digging trenches to check forest blazes from spreading.
Kanwar, however, also blamed negligence of people who sometimes throw burning cigarettes or butts which become a reason for fire alongside roads.
The Deputy Commissioner said forest officials and police were on alert to prevent any fresh fire incident.
Jaikishan, a local resident, alleged, "This year, forest officials were careless as they did not burn the pine needles so as to prevent any major fire incident".
Yesterday, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had said forest fires are "not comparable" with those raging in neighbouring Uttarakhand and the situation here is "fully under control".
Nearly 400 forest fire incidents have been reported from different parts of Himachal Pradesh in this summer apparently caused by inflammable parched pine needles, dry weather and rising mercury.
