Bhopal: Bairagarh Fire: Admin, civic body struggle to plug loopholes

Bhopal: Bairagarh fire incident has once again put administration and civic body on dock exposing their failure to streamline and strengthen the fire fighting system. In the past, the city witnessed a number of fire incidents and every time the authorities had assured to tighten safety measures but failed to deliver. The incident at Bairagarh should serve as a wake-up call for administrative and civic authorities who failed time and again have failed to plug in the loopholes to check occurrences of such incidents.

The major fire that engulfed a Sant Hirdaram Commercial Complex in Bairagarh on Sunday is estimated to have caused a loss of around Rs 72 crore. No casualty was reported in the incident. The civic body though claims to have upgraded its fire fighting system and equipped itself well to
handle such emergencies, but it has still to come up with effective fire safety plan. Congested areas, narrow lanes and high rise buildings have always been a cause of concern for the administration.

The municipal body has launched fire engine fitted bikes to negotiate congested lanes especially in the Walled City. Just couple of month ago, a showroom ‘Shree Shivam Attires Private Limited’, at Roshanpura had caught fire. During rescue operation, fire brigade unit had a tough time as there was only one exit point. BMC administration had served notices to all the shopping complex asking them to ensure better safety measures
at their establishments. Speaking about the fire safety measures, New Market Traders Association president Satish Gangrade said that they have
distributed two fire extinguishers each to shopkeepers.

“We always discourage encroachment in the market so that water tankers and fire fighters can easily move at the time of emergency. BMC additional commissioner Harish Gupta said, “We will intensify our drive to check fire fighting system at shopping complex. Earlier, also we had
served notices to many. Mayor Alok Sharma has also assured to ensure best possible measures to check such incidences.”