Fire brigade dept to slap safety violation notice

The Mumbai Fire Brigade department will issue a notice to Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) for violation of fire safety norms.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade department will issue a notice to Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) for violation of fire safety norms.

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HDIL owns the Arma Fort building where a major fire broke on Thursday.

The nine-storey commercial building in Bandra (East) had an internal fire fighting system but was connected to an alternative current supply.

"So when the electric supply of the building was switched off, the system didn't work," said a fireman.

A riser system or the internal fire fighting system consists of an underground tank and an overhead tank connected through a riser and has an outlet at every floor (through sprinklers).

When a fire breaks out, the fire brigade can use it to douse the fire.

"If the system worked, the sprinkler system would have controlled the fire at the second floor itself and it wouldn't have spread to the other floors," said a senior fire official.

HDIL will be served a notice under the new Maharashtra Fire Safety Act and will get a time period of 120 days to rectify their breaches. If it fails to do so, then legal cases will be filed against them.

The Act makes it mandatory for buildings to have essential fire-fighting equipment such as fire extinguisher, a hose reel, an automatic sprinkler and a tank storing adequate water to douse a fire.

The vertical shafts in the building were also open.

Had they been sealed, the fire wouldn't have spread.

Uday Tatkare, chief fire officer, said the building was full of people when the incident occurred but they could be evacuated as their were sufficient staircases and exit routes.

Tatkare added that losses occurred to the building would run into crores as the entire second floor to the ninth floor and parts of the tenth floor have been damaged in the incident.