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Fire at Mumbai SRA: Building violated several safety norms
The fire brigade will now lodge a police complaint against the society members as the fire-fighting system installed in the building was not working, according to chief fire officer P Rahangdale.
From a defunct fire-fighting system to a meter room cluttered with household items, the residential high-rise at Mahalaxmi, where a fire broke out on Sunday was found flouting multiple fire safety rules, according to the Mumbai fire brigade.
According to a recent affidavit filed in the Bombay high court by counsel Tanveer Nizam, as part of a writ petition on behalf of the residents of Tulsiwadi Cooperative Housing Society (CHS), the fire brigade had issued a notice to the CHS in May 2017. The CHS is a cluster of 16 housing societies that Samrat Ashok CHS —where the fire broke out on Sunday —is a part of. The notice was prompted by an inspection by the fire brigade that revealed various irregularities. It gave the society 30 days to comply with the rules. Nizam said, “No compliance was followed up by the society. So we petitioned in court.”
The fire brigade will now lodge a police complaint against the society members as the fire-fighting system installed in the building was not working, according to chief fire officer P Rahangdale. “The building did not have a working fire-fighting system. The residents had stored inflammable household items inside the meter room, which was not enclosed. These are blatant violations of fire safety norms. We will now prosecute them under the Fire Prevention Act.”
The fire brigade also found very narrow corridors where access was blocked or restricted owing to storage of household furniture. HT, in September, had reported about rising violations of fire safety rules in Mumbai’s high rises, causing rampant fires. According to data from the fire brigade, almost 50% of the 5,600 high-rises inspected since 2014 were found flouting fire safety rules.
