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Agra blaze: Another episode, no lessons learnt
A major fire in Agra's Sindhi Bazar market exposed lack of fire preparedness. No casualties reported. Firefighters faced challenges due to congested roads.
The major fire in a busy Agra market on Wednesday has exposed yet again the level of preparedness for such an exigency. About a dozen shops were gutted in the fire which even threatened the adjoining building of the medical college.
The gutted shops lacked the most basic fire-fighting measures.
Sindhi Bazar, a much sought after market for readymade garments, was ravaged by a fire that broke out at about 4 pm on Wednesday. It spread quickly as there were no measures to check it, and in panic, shopkeepers were more focused on saving the material stored in shops. Fire tenders reached the spot but only after weaving through the congested and encroached approach roads. It took more than two hours to douse the fire, and fortunately, no loss to human life was reported.
“These were shops of all sizes and totally lacked measures to fight such a situation. There were no fire extinguishers at these shops, and thus, there was no way of controlling the fire from spreading to other shops. Had there been, the fire could have been controlled as soon as it started.
The explosion in a gas cylinder in the kitchen of a hotel and compressors of abundant air conditioners in shops aggravated the intensity of fire that spread with angry, dark fumes visible from far,” stated DK Singh, the chief fire officer of Agra.
The situation got so bad that help was also sought from Air Force authorities and one of their tenders reached to provide water.
“There were no hydrant points in the market which made fire-fighting tough but coordinated efforts helped us succeed in dousing the fire,” Singh claimed.
The Old Agra city has many such congested markets which also have small scale units of footwear manufacturing. The chemicals used in footwear-making, including the pasting solution, are often highly inflammable and such fires, which mostly occur during summer, are known to have caused widespread damage, time and again.
In May 2002, 44 shoe labourers lost their lives when a footwear unit caught fire in Jeoni Mandi area of Agra. There were about 200 workers in the unit, which did not even have a proper exit and most of the workers were trapped in the upper storey of the unit. Then chief minister Mayawati visited the unit and had ordered for mandatory installation of firefighting measures besides other precautionary steps at sensitive units.
There were similar fires at footwear units in 2003 in Nai Ki Mandi, Sadar Bhatti. A man was killed last year in a fire that broke out in a godown containing chemicals in Chipitola Mandi in Rakabganj area of Agra.
