20160709 India Fire at scrap shops mirrors lack of safety measures
India Jul 08 2016 “Stores”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire at scrap shops mirrors lack of safety measures
Updated: 2016-07-09-01:48
A fire in Kudalwadi, Chikhli, in the early morning on Friday has brought to fore the lack of safety measures at numerous scrap godowns in the area.
Although no injury was reported in the fire, it has highlighted the need for Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to regulate operations of the godowns to ensure they do not become a nuisance.
In February, two major fires were reported from the same area had occurred in February in the same area. At the time, cutting across party lines, corporators had demanded that the godowns be shifted out of the city since they posed a risk to local residents due to the repeated fires occurring in them. Shiv Sena’s group leader in PCMC Sulabha Ubale, group leader of Shiv Sena corporators, PCMC had also written a letter to then municipal commissioner Rajeev Jadhav demanding that the unauthorized scrap godowns be shifted out of the city.
Speaking with TOI , Chief fire officer Kiran Gawde said, “Four scrap shops were completely gutted in the fire that occurred at Kudalwadi. We Scrap materials comprising of cardboard sheets, plastic and other goods had been gutted in the fire. The fire brigade received the call about the fire at 5.45am and The fire was extinguished by 7.30am. Apart from seven of our own fire engines, we Five fire engines from the PCMC fire brigade offices from Pimpri, Pradhikaran and Bhosari reached the spot and participated in the fire extinguishing work. One fire engine each from Tata Motors, Century Enka and Force Motors (Bajaj Auto) also helped in the work. We had also called four private water tankers to help.” Gawde confirmed that all scrap godowns in Chikhli are unauthorized. “Roads in the area are quite narrow so it was very difficult for fire engines to travel on them and reach the affected godowns. There are clusters of two rows of parallel godowns having 20 to 25 godowns in each row”,” Gawde said.
The dealers store inflammable scrap items such as like cardboard sheets and boxes, empty oil drums or cans and plastic items at the godowns. They must segregate these items and undertake preliminary fire safety measures, the officer added.
Local corporator Sadhana Jadhav said, “The scrap dealers must undertake primary fire safety measures like constructing a water tank from where water can be accessed whose water can be used in case of emergency cases and keeping fire extinguishers.” Another local corporator Rahul Jadhav suggested that wider roads be constructed in the area to facilitate movement of fire engines and water tankers. said, “Fires are occurring regularly throughout the year in the scrap godowns in Kudalwadi-Jadhavwadi area of Chikhli. So permanent safety measures need to taken. One of them is creation of wider roads to enable the fire engines move freely and reach the fire sites. These godowns must be shifted out of the city as there is a danger that the adjacent residential area may get affected leading to large scale loss of human lives and property.
Web Source: THE TIMES OF INDIA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Fire-at-scrap-shops-mirrors-lack-of-safety-measures/articleshow/53123621.cms