Amid rising instances of fire owing to electric vehicles (EV), the newly-appointed Mumbai Fire Brigade chief has warned citizens not to charge its batteries at home.
Sanjay Manjrekar was appointed the head of MFB, replacing Hemant Parab, on November 1.
This statement came after occurring from charging an EV inside a residence. On October 28, a flat in Mazgaon was gutted, after a short-circuit occurred when an EV battery was put on charge.
He further stated that citizens should follow guidelines provided by the electrical department of the civic body to charge these batteries. In addition, guidelines on fire safety for EV charging stations or charging points in housing societies will be made available soon.
Moreover, considering the mushrooming skyscrapers in the city, Manjrekar remarked that that builders must not compromise on installing good quality firefighting equipment after getting the NOCs.
Highrises must have fully-functional evacuation lifts for fire officers at all time – a mandate for all buildings above 70 meters in height as fire chutes are used only for coming down. However, fire officials have to climb the stairs, be it 30th or 40th floor, and they use internally installed firefighting equipment if the lifts are non-functional, he added.
The new fire chief’s focus will be to fill the 910 vacant posts in his department as it has not had fresh recruitments for over two-and-a-half years, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Share
Tweet
