Surat fire: City centres sitting on ticking bomb too

Ludhiana: The Surat fire tragedy, which left 20 students dead and many injured, came as a grim reminder for city’s coaching and IELTS training centres that have so far neglected fire safety norms, thus putting lives of youngsters at risk.
These centres are located mostly in very small offices in commercial complexes where hardly any fire norm is being followed. The situation is such that neither fire brigade nor MC has any such data to establish as to how many tuition centres are operational in the city. And importantly, no survey has ever been conducted in the past.
The centres have lone entry/exit point and have not even applied for fire NOC. The fire officials said only big industrial houses, schools, hospitals and malls apply for fire NOC whereas others don’t bother about the same. Several fire incidents have taken place in city in the past one year, and most of the units had no fire NOC.
The MC has no separate data to establish the exact number of coaching centres. Not only in the commercial areas, coaching centres have been operating in residential areas without any checks. They not just flout fire norms, they also don’t pay taxes or other commercial charges to the MC.
MC superintendent Vivek Verma said: “In the Property Tax Act, there is no separate category for commercial complexes or coaching centers, therefore we don’t the exact number of such establishments.” He said the fire brigade must have information about the same.
However, assistant divisional fire officer Bhupinder Sandhu showed his helplessness, saying that fire brigade is ill-equipped, due to which they could not complete the survey of buildings which had been kicked off earlier. Sandhu said the fire brigade has no powers to seal the complex, which is why nobody cares to take NOC from the department.
“The Fire Safety Act is lying pending at the state government level since 2002, without which firemen have no authority to take any action against anybody,” he said.
Rishi Raj Anand, a student of Atam Vallabh Jain College, said, “The commercial areas like Model Town extension market, Feroze Gandhi market and Kitchlu Nagar are famous for coaching centres. In these markets, thousands of students come for taking extra coaching, but there are very hardly any fire safety arrangements in these institutes.” He said even in the residential areas, people open centres without any safety measures.
NGO files a complaint
Amandeep Bains, a member of NGO RBS Roots, filed a complaint to the deputy commissioner on Saturday, highlighted how tuition and IELTS centres operate from very small places and without following any safety protocols. He said all such places in Feroze Gandhi market, Model Town extension market are clogged with tobacco vendors where smoking is common. He said every institute should conduct mock drill on a monthly basis and students should be educated on how to save himself in case of emergency.
Fire brigade is ill equipped
The fire brigade in Ludhiana is ill equipped. Besides shortage of staff, scarcity of fire tenders creates trouble for the firemen in controlling blazes. There are only 17 fire tenders out of which 6 are new, while rest are old and are used only when new ones are pressed into service somewhere else. The fire officials said they also require hydraulic platform to control fire from outside, nozzles for dousing flames at a distance, turn table ladder that can move up to 280 degrees. The Ludhiana fire brigade used to have rescue responder van which had first aid kit, fire suits, stretchers and oxygen cylinders, but this van has not been in use for the past 15 to 20 years and is lying defunct at Haibowal fire station.
In an appeal to students, sub-fire officer Atish Rai said the students while taking admission in school, colleges or coaching institutes, they should first check out fire safety arrangements and should not take admission if no such measures are in places. He said they should also complain to the fire brigade about the same, so that they can take action.
No fire survey
Following the fire and building collapse incident in Amarson polymers in November 2017, the MC had ordered a fire survey. The fire brigade had started the survey in a few hospitals and complexes and had even sent a few notices, but the survey was stopped midway. The fire officials, however, blamed the lesser manpower and political pressure due to which they could not continue the fire survey in the city.