Going by the recent fire incidents across the country leaving scores of people dead and several others injured, one can conclude that there is a long way to go to make buildings safe from fires.
Though fire tragedies are common in the country, with stakeholders showing little interest in learning lessons from these, it has become imperative now for the government to wake up to the issue and take the lead in enforcing fire safety norms in all the buildings across the country or else precious lives will continue to be lost due to recurring fire incidents.
Hardly a fortnight has passed when 21 people lost their lives in a fire incident in South Delhi including foreigners from South Asian and African countries, who had travelled to India for medical treatment or to accompany relatives undergoing care in a nearby private hospital.
Though the Delhi government and police took several actions after the tragedy, those actions could not bring back those who lost their lives. More tragic is the fact that the concerned authorities across the nation have not taken any lessons from such incidents that occur one after another because the next tragedy has been reported from Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, where fire broke out in the three-floor commercial building leading to the death of 15 persons including students.
In this case also the administration has acted only after the fire has taken the toll as precious lives were lost due to negligence. Similar to the Delhi fire tragedy, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) has issued a demolition notice for the building where a fire had claimed 15 lives the previous day. This lethargy of the authorities, whether in Delhi, Lucknow, or any other city in the country, needs to be shunned and instead of taking actions after the tragedy has struck, the authorities should foresee the dangers beforehand and ask the concerned entities to adopt fire safety measures without any exceptions or compromise. This should be the approach of one and all. Fire safety holds great significance in J&K as wooden structures are used in many of the buildings which are more prone to fires.
Reportedly, in the Lucknow incident there were no fire safety devices installed in the building, which complicated things during the inferno. Although rules mandate that fire extinguishers must be installed in public buildings, these regulations are often ignored. J&K needs to learn a lesson from the careless attitude of authorities in Delhi and Lucknow, and should start fire audits of all the buildings sooner rather than later to ensure safety of all.
As far as building owners and other stakeholders are concerned, they should also take the responsibility by ensuring fire safety measures as the government cannot reach each and every spot to search for shortcomings.
