Laxity kills 21 in Delhi fire

The fire in the Delhi hotel on Wednesday which claimed 21 lives, 11 of them foreigners, is neither the first of such incidents, nor would be the last if deficiencies in compliance with safety rules continue to be practised with the same regularity and the enforcement machinery keeps turning a blind eye towards flagrant violations. The hotel Flourish Stay B&B in Malviyanagar was the product of Delhi government’s Bed and Breakfast Scheme launched in 2007. It has been officially withdrawn following the tragedy. Under the policy, the facility is allowed to have six rooms. But the accused facility owner operated with 25 rooms. He didn’t have the mandatory fire safety clearance.

It had only a single entry and exit. Several windows were sealed thereby closing the exit possibility for those who could jump out. Stairs going to the rooftop were rendered useless as the exit to the rooftop was sealed thereby making the facility a death trap. Not this alone, the main door was sensor-operated. The hotel had two kitchens, one in the basement and another on the top floor, both of them storing multiple LPG cylinders. Besides kitchen, the basement had rooms too, totally in violation of the basic rules of tenancy. The owner was living elsewhere rather than within the facility. He had handed over the entire management to another person.

There would have been more casualties but for the mattress shop owner in the same street who laid out all the mattresses for the ones jumping from the top floor to escape the fire. The Bed and Breakfast scheme was introduced under the ‘Incredible India’ B&B framework. It was designed to promote safe and affordable home-stays in residential neighbourhoods. The rules provided for a maximum of six double-bed rooms per property. It mandated that the owner will reside on the premises and the facility would comply with fire safety, ventilation basic infrastructure norms. As of 2023, more than 2,200 rooms across 432 properties in the national capital are registered under the Delhi government’s B&B scheme.

Though the Delhi government has revoked the B&B Policy and ordered an inquiry into the incident, one is sceptical if anything would come out of this rigmarole before people would hear another such catastrophe costing precious lives elsewhere. The administration has taken no lessons from the Uphaar Cinema tragedy which devoured 59 lives in June 1997 and several other such incidents. In the Uphaar case, owners Ansal brothers, who were convicted for the tragedy and sentenced for seven years in 2021, were released after one year in 2022 due to old age.

The B&B tragedy happened due to wilful negligence towards building safety codes, blocked emergency exits, sealed windows, total regulatory failure and absolute absence of safety audits. It is a reminder that most inspections have become a rent-seeking exercise by officials who are never held accountable. It is pertinent to ask if the authorities will proceed against the officials who allowed the facility to continue? Wasn’t it only two years ago that Rau’s IAS coaching centre being run in a basement in Delhi, was deluged resulting in three deaths with the Delhi govt launching a drive to evacuate basements?