Need for adhering to fire safety rules stressed

THE NEED to inform, communicate and educate the citizens in context of fire safety regulations was stressed by Divisional Commissioner Ashok Das here today. He was speaking as chief guest at a one-day workshop on ?fire and life safety? and introduction of Disaster Management Group.

THE NEED to inform, communicate and educate the citizens in context of fire safety regulations was stressed by Divisional Commissioner Ashok Das here today. He was speaking as chief guest at a one-day workshop on ‘fire and life safety’ and introduction of Disaster Management Group.

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The function hosted by the State Fire Services in partnership with the private sector was held at hotel Fortune Landmark. Das said the time for holding such a workshop was right as the City was expanding at high speed.

Infrastructure expansion of the City saw a boom in the 90s when a large number of multi-storey complexes began to be constructed and today the City has two functional malls with several more coming up along with seven multiplexes in different phases of construction and operation.

However, government agencies were lagging far behind in comparison to this phenomenal increase and the district administration was finding it difficult to arrange funds for purchase of modern smoktel ladders costing Rs 1.5 crore then and required urgently by the fire department in order to be prepared for fighting any emergencies.

Despite development the core sector of the City remains highly congested and the initiative to develop satellite townships as earmarked in the master plan in 1996 gave only one township in the form of ‘Aranya’ in Scheme-74. However, towns as far as Mangliya and Pithampur have also been included as satellite townships in the new master plan.

The roads remain congested and particularly in the Rajwada area where traffic has to be diverted every time there is a fire or other emergency for making way for the fire tenders to manoeuvre inside the congested lanes.

It has been seen that the builders take permission from municipal authorities and Town and Country Planning Department but not from the fire authority, which is equally mandatory, he said.

It has been seen that builders encroach upon space shown as parking and open area by making shops or using it as godowns and in such circumstances the watchdog agencies have to take concerted action.

He asked for holding regular mock drills in malls and urged the owners to keep an effective quality check on material used in construction, as 75 per cent of fires are caused by short circuit and storage of combustible material in danger areas and take standard precautions in day to day operations.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Surendra Sinh in his presidential address said that investment on the part of the builder on space, money and material is similar to investing money in life insurance. He said that while the west has been aped in architecture and design the key component of quality control and safety features has bee ignored.

It has been seen that fire exits are used as duping grounds, fire extinguishers are either corroded/jammed or empty and there is no water in the over head tank when the need comes for undertaking fire fighting measures.

Learning from increasing number of accidents causing damage to property and loss of life safety, precautions should be inculcated as part of habit as the well being of all is the responsibility of all.

IGP Home Guard R C Chari, IGP Fire Ashok Dohare, IG Indore Dr SK Shrivastav, IG APTC S S Sengar, DIG V Madhukumar Babu and SP Anshuman Yadav were present as special guests.

NSC regional secretary S V Pillai delivered a lecture on ‘emergency planning and disaster management’, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) senior regional manager Baldev Bhatia on ‘gas and petroleum storage and involved hazards’ and by safety engineer and consultant Lokesh Dadoo on ‘various aspects of disaster management’.

DIG Fire R K Gupta welcomed the guests and spoke on Central regulations mentioned in the National Building Court and State Government regulations in Bhumi Vikas Nigam laws. DSP Fire B L Gandharv proposed the vote of thanks.