Contributed By: Mrs. Alka Joshi, Director Marketing- Prolite Autoglo Ltd.

While one cannot blame the fire brigade and safety authorities for not trying to educate and update common people on basic rules and laws concerning exigency and rescue operations in emergencies, their efforts have paid little by way of dividends if recent experiences are anything to go by.

For example, take the case of our commercial capital-Mumbai-that has had a succession of terrible fire accidents one after the other, over the last couple of years. How many of us know, or care, that under the Maharashtra Fire Safety and Prevention Act, all residential and commercial structures must conduct a fire-safety audit and send a report to the fire brigade, bi-annually?

If one were to do a cursory case study of horrific incidents like the Kamala mills case or the ESIC hospital case, the common thread seems to be gross violation of basic building code norms at the time of construction/alteration coupled with unpreparedness to deal with a fire accident in real time to minimize damage and control the fallout.

In the Kamala Mills case, MOH had inspected 1Above thrice on May 17, July 13 and August 23 and on all three occasions, found major “infringement of licence conditions” by the restaurant. The irregularities ranged from using the terrace for commercial activity and allowing smoking. Also, both Mojo’s Bistro and 1Above were taken to court thrice the previous year for various licence infractions and prosecuted.

The investigation by the Mumbai Fire Brigade into the fire at Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospital in Marol that killed 11 patients revealed that 20 LPG cylinders were stored in the hospital canteen without the requisite permission. In the ESIC case, there was only one entry/ exit point to the hospital which was a major goof up at the construction stage itself.

“During the investigation it was noted that canteen activities were being carried out on the ground floor with 20 LPG cylinders below the staircase. It is highly objectionable from fire risk and life safety point of view,” read the fire brigade’s report submitted to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).

“The ESIC hospital fire that claimed 11 lives put the spotlight back on gross irregularities in building construction and compliance of fire safety norms. The 345-bed hospital did not have a fire NOC or a mandatory fire exit”, read a report.

Exigency rules as per the building code spell out that certain essentials like clear and unambiguous illuminated signages and battle ready functional emergency lighting, fire alarms, extinguishers and similar paraphernalia are not optional but compulsory in the case of enclosed constructions. Yet, we see repeats of these violations incident by incident.

Some ‘out of the box’ thinking is the need of the hour for sure.