Editorial: Needed: Fire-safe urban spaces

The fire tragedy in a building in Mundka area of North Delhi has claimed almost 30 lives. The death toll is still not confirmed as several persons are reported missing while several bodies are charred beyond recognition. Reports suggest that two floors of the building being used for manufacture of electronic equipment were illegally built and were not sanctioned as per plan. Early investigations reveal that the building defied the guidelines on ventilation laid down by the Supreme Court and the floors did not have the requisite number of exits. It was built in a congested area—it is allegedly the same with all buildings in the area—and the fire tenders had difficulty in carrying out rescue operations in the ill-fated building.

Most fire tragedies across the nation have the same causes to attribute for catastrophes. Most buildings flout sanctioned plans, provide no fire exits, the fire extinguishers, hydrants and other safety apparatus are scarcely provided or maintained. Fire exits are mostly obstructed by junk and discarded material. The mandatory fire safety drills are unheard of. Buildings are used for commercial purposes in residential areas thereby enhancing risks for bona fide residents. Under National Building Code, public buildings must have enough space around for movement of firefighters to approach the building from all four sides. Callous disregard for fire safety rules is an additional opportunity for Fire Safety inspectors to line their pockets with each inspection. The story is invariably the same across all cities which have seen unwieldy expansion during the last three decades.

Judicial probes are routinely announced after each such tragedy and public memory being proverbially short, no one pursues the matter which allows them to rest there. Court cases run for years and nothing comes out of them. Upahaar Cinema tragedy (1997) where 59 lives were lost, took 95 hearings and 21 years for the owners i.e., Ansal brothers, to be convicted and sentenced for seven years. It was an exceptional and celebrated case, and could be brought to conclusion due to dogged pursuit of a couple of victims. Victims elsewhere are not that lucky.

Human negligence also plays a part. Carelessly thrown cigarette butts, storing of crackers or inflammable material or a malfunctioning generator (as is the case with Mundka building) are normally the causes for lighting the fuse.

Firefighting infrastructure too is woefully short of necessary upgradation. Skyscrapers are reaching 50 floors in cities such as Mumbai but fire hoses cannot pump water beyond 30 floors. According to a Home Ministry reply to a question in Parliament in 2015, the nation had 2,087 fire stations against the requirement of 8,600. The gap between the required firefighting personnel and the ones available was 559,000 while the gap in number of vehicles required and the ones actually in operation was over 9,000.

It is imperative that civic bodies initiate drastic action against violators of building regulations and tighten the mechanism to monitor fire-fighting equipment along with heightening awareness among occupants of large buildings.