Urban Fires

 • In Uphaar cinema hall fire in New Delhi in 1997 59 people were killed as the exits had been blocked by unauthorised seating.
• In 2016, fire destroyed Delhi’s National Museum of Natural History thus doing the incalculable damage to anthropological heritage and specimens in it.
• Similar incidents in industrial units, hospitals, firecracker units or even in residential areas are also on the rise.

Issues

Fires are man-made disasters, which can occur as a consequence of a natural disaster like earthquake or as an individual disaster.

• Urban Issues: Urban issues like high population, overcrowding, unregulated commercial activities are frequently responsible for urban fires.
• Carelessness and apathy: According to data compiled by the Delhi Fire Service, maximum number of fire accidents occurs due to short-circuiting or faulty electrical appliances. Developers are not implementing various provisions of the Building Code like provision of fire lifts in high rise buildings, fire-scape stairs for firemen, heavy static water storage etc.
• Shortage of fire stations in rural areas and Indian cities as little less than 3,000 such units are operating against the requirement of over 8,500 which shows a deficiency of 65%.
• Legislative Issues: Maintenance of fire service is a municipal function but the Centre provides funds and training to improve the infrastructure and quality of manpower needed to tackle fire incidents.
• Administrative Challenges: A slow criminal justice process and rampant bureaucratic and political corruption have also contributed to the violation of building norms.
• Challenges in Slums or illegal settlements: In slums closely packed constructions, construction with inflammable materials, narrow lanes inhibiting access to fire engines, unauthorized electrical connections, unsafe wiring etc. increase the impact of fires.

Suggestions

• Objective and impartial enquiry of fire incidents to assess the cause and further the violator must be made to pay the damage if fire safety norms are not adhered to.
• Standing Fire Advisory Council has recommended setting up fire stations based on response time of 5-7 minutes in urban areas and 20 minutes in rural areas.
• Shift from fire-fighting to fire prevention and mitigation – Measures to prevent and mitigate can be divided into structural and non-structural.
• Development of wildland-urban interface maps i.e. mapping of areas where naturally fire-prone wilderness areas such as forests and shrublands are close to or even intermingled with, housing developments.
• NDMA issued guidelines in 2012 to standardise the type of equipment and training of personnel to modernise and improve fire-fighting capabilities in the country. It also included enactment of fire Act and preparation of a comprehensive plan in every state.
• Further the training must be provided to fire officers in advanced techniques of firefighting and rescue, keeping in mind changes such as industrialisation, growth of industry and expansion of urban areas.