20190725 No lessons learnt from killer Takshashila Arcade fire
India Jul 25 2019 “Building”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
No lessons learnt from killer Takshashila Arcade fire
Updated: 2019–07–25
SURAT: Exactly two months after the Takshashila Arcade fire, which had claimed the lives of 22 teenagers, despite the civic body working round-the-clock, only 10% buildings above 15 meters were found to have set up proper fire safety equipment.
The fire and emergency department of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) sealed 125 commercial complexes that have cumulative foot fall of nearly four lakh people.
Basant Parikh , chief fire officer of the fire and emergency department of the SMC, said, “After the Takshashila Arcade, we conducted a survey of all commercial and residential buildings which are 15 metre or higher than that. However, people seemed still either unaware or grossly neglecting the fact that some simple fire safety provisions, if equipped and used at the right time, could have saved many lives. In our survey we found that only 10% of such taller buildings had set up proper fire safety equipment at their places.”
He added, “In many places shop keepers and owners of the property were seen fighting as to who should own responsibility and who should financially bear the installation of the fire safety systems. We had to forcibly seal some complexes to set an example .”
At many places owners were made responsible for installing of fire safety of the whole premises, and operation and maintenance responsibility was put on shop keepers and other establishments that function there.
The fire department also surveyed 2,292 private tuition classes, of which 1,389 were issued notices and nearly 1,300 sealed till they set up the basic systems or gave promise in writing of setting up the system in a stipulated time period.
Web Source: The times of India