Bengaluru under pressure to observe exigency and fire safety protocols more strongly

Rising fire accidents in the city of Bengaluru have sparked severe safety concerns among the people, many of whom live in high rises with highly suspect firefighting capabilities. Spontaneous combustions, gas leakage, oil spill or negligence... Fire can be sparked by any means and spreads fast, destroying everything that comes in its way. Many newly built residential apartments do have fire exits and fire extinguishers. But this is not the norm.

 

Several offices have now started training their employees to fight fire accidents, check their extinguishers and fire alarms regularly to avoid accidents. However, the same cannot be said about residential buildings. Inmates are not aware of how to use safety paraphernalia like extinguishers and are in no hurry to learn either.

 

Bengaluru is not alone, Mumbai, the commercial capital, has been seeing more than its fair share of fire mishaps in recent times. Metro cities to smaller townships, all seem to suffer the same problems. Arbitrary grant of fire safety licences, gross violation of basic exigency norms like installation and maintenance of Fire Extinguishers, emergency lights, safety signages as also poor planning and maintenance of structures have claimed lives aplenty over the years.

 

 In this day and age of social media, the faults of the builders, as well as all the authorities concerned, are being magnified and bared day in and day out and heads will have to roll. Kamala Mills, ESIC hospital and High Rise fires of late, have claimed urban lives and sparked of a wave of anger among the people. Bigwigs have been sent to jail and the days of holy cows appear to have waned considerably.