Increasing number of fire incidents, including in houses, have raised pollution level in the Capital, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai claimed here on Thursday. Rai said this while releasing a report submitted by the committee regarding fire incidents at landfill sites including Bhalswa and Gazipur. The report contains a data of fire incidents that took place between April 15 and 27 this year comparing the same with last year's data 2015. According to the official date, between April 15 and 27, this year, major fire cases have been witnessed with a three-fold hike leading to severe damage in air quality of Capital. While sharing the report, Rai claimed that on 15 April, last year, the number of fire incidents were 47 while this year the number went up to 113 while on 16 April last year, it was 51 and this year it was 104. Further, as per data, last year on 17, 18 and 19 April the number of fire incidents were 62, 69 and 66 while this year it touched at 117, 115 and 102 respectively. Besides, on other days too, the number increased significantly on which the transport minister said that he is unaware about the forces behind such fire incidents. "We don't know who is behind sudden increasing number of these fire incidents. In last 15 days, fire incidents have increased by three times compared to such incidents last year during the same period, which has left significant impact on damaging the city's air quality," said Rai. He said media and government may have different reports but people are following odd-even scheme. "I therefore appeal to media to conduct an open survey on the road-rationing plan so that a clear picture could come out before everyone," said Rai. After receiving flak from various experts and many hospitals including AIIMS and Apollo mentioning that no major change seen due to odd-even in place, the Delhi government, sought to safeguard itself by claiming that it is the number of fire incidents that raised pollution levels.