NT NETWORK
PANAJI
A detailed inspection of government buildings, offices, educational institutions and hospitals in the state by the fire department over the last four months has revealed that Margao tops the list of towns with the most number of violations of several mandatory fire-fighting guidelines.
According to figures available with the fire department, in Margao, 239 government offices, buildings, schools and hospitals were found to be lacking even the most basic fire-fighting equipment followed by Valpoi with 220 such buildings, which were found with lapses in fire safety norms. Ponda and Mapusa also witnessed a significant number of such violations.
Fire department officials said the 1,431 government buildings, offices, schools and hospitals that were inspected, most of which were built decades ago, lacked one or more of the essential safety requirements – fire alarms, sprinklers and adequate stock of water.
Around 497 government offices and buildings have no major fire-fighting system in place thus endangering the lives of thousands of people. Margao topped the list with places where buildings lacked major fire-fighting system with 71 such public
buildings followed by Curchorem, Valpoi and Panaji.
According to sources in the fire department, “Almost 80 per cent of government-run hospitals as well as government buildings do not have the basic fire safety measures in place.” They said that it was not only the government hospitals and health centres that lacked fire safety norms but private hospitals too function without properly maintained fire-safety equipment.
As per the sources, around 64 government hospitals with maximum of them located in Valpoi and Old Goa have not followed the fire safety rules and around 76 private hospitals have violated the norms. Most of such private hospitals are located in Margao and Ponda.
Educational institutions in the state have also violated the fire safety rules. Around 794 government and private educational institutions in the state lack the sufficient fire-safety equipment, according to records obtained from the fire department. A total of 141 such schools lacking smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, modern alarms and sprinkler system were found to be located in Valpoi, followed by Margao with 140 such schools, Ponda (110), Mapusa (81), Bicholim (69) and Pernem (60). The least number of school buildings found to violate fire safety norms were in Panaji with four schools.