Over 200 hospitals checked in Ghaziabad, only 54 have fire fighting infra

GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad fire department has issued notices to over 600 buildings in the district for non-compliance with fire safety measures. A total of 3,765 fires were reported in Ghaziabad between January 2019 and August 15, 2022, in which 27 people died.

In fact, the department conducted a survey of 1,728 buildings, including hospitals, malls, hotels, group housing societies and commercial complexes, from January 1 to August 15 this year. Of these buildings, some 690 were found to be compliant with fire safety norms.
On the other hand, loopholes were found in the fire safety systems of 1,038 buildings - and of them, 619 were served notices for severe laxity in norms while the remaining have been given time till September-end to fix the issues.
Sunil Kumar Singh, chief fire officer of Ghaziabad, said, "Of some 918 industrial buildings inspected across the district, only 302 met fire safety norms. While 331 buildings were issued verbal warnings for non-functional fire fighting systems, we served notices to 285 owners for lack of safety measures."
The fire department inspected 206 hospitals and nursing homes in the district. "Only 54 medical facilities had the fire fighting systems at the time of inspection. We have issued notices to 152 hospital owners and also asked the chief medical officer to cancel their licences if they fail to install the same," he said.
"Of some 118 hotels inspected, only 38 hotels were found to be compliant with fire safety norms. Notices have been served to 80 hotel owners. All the 24 malls in the district met fire safety norms," the CFO said. "We have urged the GDA and the industries department to cancel the licences of the errant buildings if they fail to install proper fire safety systems within the stipulated period."
Similarly, notices were served to 102 out of 416 group housing societies surveyed in the district for non-compliance with norms.
In 2019, some 1,129 cases of fire were reported in the district, which claimed the lives of eight people. The numbers came down to 910 in 2020, in which 14 people lost their lives. In 2021, 932 cases of fire were reported in the district in which one death was recorded.This year, from January 1 to August 15, a total 786 fires were reported in the district, in which four people died while 36 were saved.