Safety Expert: 90 per cent buildings don’t have functional fire safety equipment

After the fire broke out in Parel’s Crystal Tower, more than 16 people were admitted to the hospital in a critical condition and four people died. Fire Department informed that due to the non-functional fire extinguisher, it took time to control the fire.

According to the rules set up by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), every six months, the societies shall conduct a fire audit and submit the report to the Fire department. However, a handful of societies follow these instructions which leads to a troubling situation like this during an incident and makes it difficult to get the situation under control.

Safety experts declared that, according to the statistics in Mumbai, 90 per cent of the societies don’t have functional fire equipment and because of the negligence of builders, societies, and people living there, the number of fire accidents increase in probability. 

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Builders Association of India member Anand Gupta told Mumbai Live that it is mandatory for the societies to conduct a fire audit and submit its report to the concerned authorities but that doesn’t happen. He further informed that 99 per cent of the builders install fire safety equipment in their buildings or else they are not provided with the Occupational Certificate (OC). It is the responsibility of the societies to timely check the fire equipment, Gupta added.

While talking to Mumbai Live, Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA) president Ramesh Prabhu accepted that the societies are not careful regarding keeping fire safety measures intact. Watchman, Security Guard, and Liftman are not trained to operate fire safety equipment. Prabhu further informed that almost 10,000 buildings have an OC. 

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Mumbai Fire Brigade chief Prabhat Rahangdale told Mumbai Live that the number of people in the fire brigade are less in number and because of this, it takes time for them to examine the buildings. Rahangdale informed that they will, however, soon finish the fire audit of the buildings.