Post accident, Pune’s civic body to conduct survey of shops in Uruli Devachi

Inspection begins from May 13, will be extended to other parts of city

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has taken a decision to conduct a survey of all shops in Uruli Devachi starting May 13 after five men were charred to death in a shop in the area on Thursday (May 9). The PMC will be conducting the survey jointly with the fire brigade department.

Five men were charred to death in a shop at Uruli Devachi on May 9. (SHANKAR NARAYAN/HT)

Vilas Navhali, deputy engineer in the building department of the civic administration, accepted the fact that if such surveys were conducted earlier, five lives could have been saved.

He said, “If we had conducted the survey and identified that the shop did not have any fire extinguishing systems, we could have avoided the incident. Besides, the structure was in a bad shape and this would have been revealed through the survey.”

According to Navhali, there are at least 60 commercial establishments in Uruli Devachi, which were earlier in the gram panchayat, however, post the merger of 11 villages within the PMC limits in 2017, they now are under the jurisdiction of the civic body.

He said, “Almost all of these shops either are dilapidated structures or do not have fire extinguishing systems. Post our survey, we will send notices to these shops owners requesting them to either vacate these establishments or repair the structures depending on their condition.”

“While initially, we will conduct this survey only in Uruli Devachi, we will eventually extend it across the city,” added Navhali.

Five men were charred to death in a saree shop in Uruli Devachi on May 9. According to police officials, all of them were sleeping inside the shop and the owner had locked the door from outside. By the time the manager called the fire brigade and the rescue team could reach the spot, the fire had spread further and the five had suffocated.