Loophole in Fire Safety Act

THE MONDAY?S fire incident at 5-Star Landmark Hotel is an eye-opener for the police department because the incident occurred when it is celebrating the ?Fire Safety Week? (April 14 to 20). Notably, the first three days of the safety week witnessed several incidents of fire in the city.

THE MONDAY’S fire incident at 5-Star Landmark Hotel is an eye-opener for the police department because the incident occurred when it is celebrating the ‘Fire Safety Week’ (April 14 to 20). Notably, the first three days of the safety week witnessed several incidents of fire in the city.

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Senior police officials believe that most of the high-rise buildings in the city lack prompt fire safety measures. They blame it to the new ‘Fire Safety Act’ that had taken back the services of fire department in deciding the fire safety measures in a under construction building. The new Act empowers the Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) to issue fire safety permission to the builders.

Senior police officials say it is high time the owners of multi-storied buildings should take an overall review of the existing safety norms. Even the police officials, who rushed to the hotel after getting the news of fire, were in dismay over the fact that had the fire was massive then there were no arrangements to climb the high-rise hotel. They were unanimous that the staff or other persons living in the multi-storied buildings should be well versed in the fire safety norms.

It is worth mentioning that despite presence of the state-of-the-art fire extinguishing arrangements, the hotel staff didn’t know how to operate them in the emergency situation.

As the season is conducive for such fire incidents, therefore police have decided to send a circular to important installations telling them how to save themselves in case of emergencies like fire.

Talking to Hindustan Times, SP Crime Sripati Mishra said, “Yesterday’s fire at the hotel is a lesson for all of us.” He also said police would play a positive role in making people aware about safety measures so that in case of emergency they could tackle the situation.