PCMC fire dept will issue notices to 147 pvt hosps over fire-safety compliance

The fire brigade department of PCMC will serve notices to 147 private hospitals who are yet to complete the fire audit, or those that have refused to do the same

PUNE The fire brigade department of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will serve notices to 147 private hospitals who are yet to complete the fire audit, or those that have refused to do the same.

The fire brigade department of PCMC will serve notices to 147 private hospitals who are yet to complete the fire audit, or those that have refused to do the same. (HT (PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))

Of the 438 private hospitals, 266 hospitals have completed the fire audit.

Kiran Gawade, chief fire brigade officer said, “We will serve notices to hospitals who have not completed the fire audit even after repeated reminders. At least 85 private hospitals have not conducted fire audit, while 62 have refused to conduct fire audit.”

Following the Ahmednagar fire tragedy which took place on November 6 in which 11 died in a Covid-19 ICU ward, district collector Rajesh Deshmukh has now directed all private hospitals to file a compliance report by Thursday. Those that are not fully compliant will be given a final notice and time till November 30, 2021. Post that, legal action as per the rules may be taken.

“Although there is no clause of doing a fire audit every year, personally I feel hospital authorities should conduct a fire audit once every two years. We have seen major incidents of fire in hospitals in the last one year from which authorities should understand the importance of conducting regular fire audits,” added Gawade.

After the notice is served, the hospital will be given time to reply, and if no reply comes then the fire brigade officials will take further action.

“All the PCMC-run hospitals have conducted fire audits,” added Gawade.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Parth Pawar tweeted on Tuesday: “It has been observed that fire audit of many hospitals in Pimpri Chinchwad including Pune district has not been done. This is very serious and immediate measures should be taken at the municipal level to prevent recurrence of innocent patients.”

Private hospitals in PCMC

438: Total number of private hospitals

266: competed fire audit

48: Not submitted audit report

85: not conducted fire audit

62: Refuse to conduct fire audit

25: Shut down