No mechanism for inspection of fire safety in buildings, says Acharya

Home Minister V S Acharya admitted on Tuesday that the State had no 'mechanism' in place to inspect high rises and commercial buildings regularly to prevent mishaps such as the fire accident at Carlton Towers.



He said that a mechanism will have to be introduced to keep regular tabs on building violations.

Addressing the media after a ceremony to honour fire fighters and home guards, Acharya admitted “There is no mechanism in the state to inspect buildings regularly. We need a multi-pronged approach to this issue with several departments like urban development, police and fire services coming together to ensure that building by-laws are not violated.”
He said that the government will have to take several statutory decisions regarding safety in buildings and work on the principle that prevention of accidents is better.

“Although the fire and emergency services did a commendable job during the incidents at Carlton Towers, Gokaldas exports and even the building collapse in Bellary, we need to work towards preventing these accidents,” he said.

Medal for 48 fire fighters

Earlier, the Home Minister awarded the Chief Minister’s medal to 48 fire fighters and 30 Home guards. Acharya said that the two forces played a critical role in times of natural calamities in rescue and rehabilitation work. “These forces have played a vital role during the floods in North Karnataka and also in the drought hit districts. They also performed a stellar role in creating awareness among the public” he said.

Acharya added that the Government was working towards having a fire station in all Taluks in the state and also more stations in Bangalore city. Currently, out of the 176 Taluks in the state only 136 have fire stations. “We have already given permission to establish more fire stations in the state. By the end of 2010 we will have 21 more fire stations in the state,” he said.

He inaugurated an awareness initiative of the Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services department and unveiled two mascots ‘Uncle Dash’ and ‘Baby Pom’. Acharya also flagged off three new hi-tech fire engines with state of the art fire fighting equipment.

 

 

 

 

Garment godown gutted in major fire

BANGALORE: A major fire swept through a godown of a leading garment exporter in Bangalore gutting huge quantities of cloth bundles in the wee hours of on Friday. But no casualties were reported as the incident took place at around 3.20 am and the godown of Gokaldas Exports Limited was closed, fireforce officials said. Over 30 fire tenders took almost four hours to put out the fire but the godown spread over an area of 8,000-10,000 sq. ft was fully gutted, they said. Electrical short circuit was suspected to have caused the fire, officials said adding the loss which could be huge was yet to be estimated.

Textiles worth crores gutted in godown fire

Textile rolls and other materials worth several crores of rupees were gutted when a godown of a ready-made garment factory caught fire at Gurguntepalya on Tumkur Road on Friday morning.

Electric short circuit is said to be the cause for the fire mishap. However, there were no injuries and casualties as there was no one inside the godown, police said. A few security guards noticed smoke inside the godown of ‘Gokaldas Exports’ around 3 am and immediately alerted the fire force. Twenty-nine fire tenders, 150 firemen and 50 recruits rushed to the spot in view of the nature of the materials involved.They took nearly five hours to put off the fire and brought it under control by 8 am. However, the senior fire force officials stationed the fire tenders near the spot till 1 pm as a precautionary measure, said Karnataka Fire and Emergency Service Director B G Chengappa. Firemen Nagaraj sustained minor injuries in the incident and was treated as an outpatient.
Timely arrival
The timely arrival of the firemen and fire tenders averted what could have been the biggest fire mishap in the last four months. The godown is spread over four acres. Moreover, there are many industrial units adjacent to the godown where highly inflammable and other materials are stored. The fire was at its worst and was on the verge of spreading to neighbouring building when the firemen arrived. Six hours of hard efforts by the firemen prevented further damage, police said. The incident led to partial damage of the building. Walls of the godown have developed cracks as the firemen had to use much water with force. Gokaldas Exports belongs to Hinduja Group of Companies. Raw cloth materials from various textile mills were stored here. The unit supplies the cloth rolls to various ready-made garments factories. The rolls were stored in seven zones when the fire broke out of which rolls stored in five zones were reduced to ashes. The unit starts at 9 am and closes at 5.30 am. Hence, no one was inside the unit, added the police.
Four fire mishaps
The City has witnessed four major fire mishaps during the last one-and-half months. Nine persons were killed when they jumped out from sixth and seventh floors in Carlton Towers as there was dense smoke inside due to electric short circuit on February 23. Exactly a month later on March 23, a major fire broke out at the Ministry of Defence CSD canteen store depot on Trinity Church Road, old Airport Road. Materials stored were reduced to ashes. The scrap yard at BMTC Central Work Depot at Shanti Nagar was a blazing pile March 3 after materials stored in the depot caught fire. A bar and a restaurant on the terrace of a three-storey commercial building was gutted in a fire in the busy Residency Road on April 12. Soaring temperature, human errors and electric short circuit led to these incidents, said a fire force officer.

Another towering inferno

It seems the authorities haven’t learnt any lessons from Carlton Towers fire tragedy. Hours after the Gold Tower complex on Residency Road caught fire on Monday noon, top officials of the fire force department claimed the building owner had not obtained a No Objection Certificate (NoC). The BBMP washed its hands off the matter, saying it had issued a notice to the owner. Hundreds of people had a miraculous escape when Gold Tower, near Konark Hotel, was engulfed in flames.According to Jija Hari Singh, DGP, Fire & Emergency Services, the exact cause of the fire was not known as yet. “It is not clear whether the fire broke out when priests were performing pooja or caused by a short-circuit in the pub,” she said.According to eyewitnesses, the fire broke out in the kitchen. Thick smoke enveloped the terrace, where NYK’s Elite Club, a lounge bar, is located. Young men and women, who were partying, rushed down the stairs.The Mayo Hall fire station received information about the fire at around 1.34 pm. Meanwhile, five people had got stuck in the lift as power supply had been stopped. Later, the fire force personnel rescued them.Within minutes of the fire, owners shut their shops inside the building and came on to Residency Road, causing a huge traffic pile-up and even hampering the movement of fire tenders. Traffic jams were witnessed on Richmond Road, St Mark’s Road and in the surrounding areas. Civilians joined hands with the police to regulate movement of vehicles.Fifteen fire tenders and 75 firemen battled for more than an hour to put out the blaze. The fire force personnel, holding water hoses, climbed up the staircase to reach the terrace and douse the fire.P S Sandhu, IGP, Fire and Emergency Force, said combustible materials like bamboo and plastic were used for decorating the pub. Besides gas cylinders, alcohol was stored in huge quantity. “Fortunately, the incident happened during the day. Had it happened in the night, it could have been disastrous,” he said.

No safety measures

Jija Hari Singh said though the complex was a high-rise structure, it had taken no fire safety measures. “We have not sanctioned the NoC. I do not know how it is being allowed to function. BBMP should answer that. Our job is to extinguish the fire and evacuate people to safety We’ve done that.”She has sent a report to the government seeking permission to visit buildings and check the safety apparatus before and after granting the NoC.BBMP health inspector Krishnavardhan, who visited the spot, said a notice had been issued to pub owner Anantha Narayanan objecting to the location of the kitchen on the terrace. “He (Anantha), along with other hotel owners, had gone to the court appealing against the notice,” he said.Siddappaji, a BBMP health officer, said the licence for the pub was obtained in 2006-07. It has been renewed every year since then. The land, owned by the Wakf board, has been leased out to Chetan Tayal. He built Gold Tower and rented out the terrace to Anantha to run the pub

Pictures: Another day, another fire?! NYK's & Konark Hotel, the latest venues

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ನಿಕ್ಸ್ ಎಲೈಟ್ ಕ್ಲಬ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಂಕಿ: ವಸ್ತುಗಳು ಭಸ್ಮ

Fire at Bangalore high rise, no casualties

BANGALORE: A bar and a restaurant on the terrace of a three-storey (Ed correct) commercial building was gutted in a fire in the busy Residency Road here today but there was no casualty, police and fire brigade said. The incident, coming after the February 23 fire tragedy in Carlton Towers, which claimed nine lives and injured many others, triggerred panic among the people in the locality. Fifteen fire tenders doused the flames within 30 minutes, fire force sources said. According to initital reports, the fire lit for performing a religeous ritual might have caused the incident. Fire brigade said the cause of the fire was being probed. They said the bar and restaurant, built atop the Golden Towers, was an "unauthorised" construction and the entire building had no fire safety equipments. It had also not obtailed clearance from the fire department, they said. Officials of the Fire Force said a case would be booked against the owner of the building for allegedly violating fire safety norms.

Fire razes ‘unauthorised’ pub

In yet another devastating fire, a four-storey building, whose terrace had been ''illegally'' converted into a pub, on Residency Road was gutted here on Monday afternoon, though there were no casualties.

The raging fire at Gold Towers where the NYXs Elite Club pub operated, was reminiscent of the Carlton Tower tragedy in which nine persons lost their lives in February. The police believe that the top-storey structure caught fire when a ‘homa’ ritual was being performed by the builders just behind the pub. As many as 14 fire tenders and about 100 firemen were pressed into service to douse the flames that engulfed the club around on a hot, sweltering afternoon. Thick plumes of smoke billowed from the pub kitchen as the flames, fanned by the warm breeze, licked upwards. It is understood that the priests perfoming the ‘homa’ poured ghee into the pit laden with firewood. The inflammable liquid caused the flames to rage all the more, and spread to a bamboo structure. The crackling fire then spread to the cable connected to an air-conditioner and a hoarding whose plastic sheet melted in no time. The entire terrace turned into a blazing orange inferno. The kitchen and dance floor were charred, leaving behind broken and burnt seats and glass shards across the pub premises. Traffic on Residency Road and its surrounding areas was thrown out of gear, causing snarls and long, serpentine lines of vehicles. Local residents and passersby crowded the area, watching the fire engines and the fire fighters battle the flames for close to two hours before it was put out. The Fire and Emergency Department, which received the first call at 1:34 pm responded to the fire instantly, but the fire engines had to negotiate heavy traffic on the busy Residency Road. According to department officials, the building owners had not obtained a no-objection certificate. They said they were probing if the four floors were unauthorised. “We do not have any files pertaining to the Gold Towers. There was no clearance from our side for the construction of the building and the safety standards inside,” Fire and Emergency Department DGP Jija Madhavana Hari Singh said. According to senior officials, the pub was unfit for use and had not installed any fire safety measures. “It is a matter of luck the fire broke out during lunch hour. There were not many people in the building, otherwise lives would have been lost,” a Fire Department official said. Recently, the BBMP had prepared a list of pubs running on terraces of high rising buildings, but NYX Club did not figure in it, leading to suspicions that it was operating without authorisation. BBMP (East) Health Officer Dr Siddappaji said he did not have any information on whether permission was accorded to the club to operate. Other civil officials said the Palike has stopped giving permission to terrace-top hotels and was not renewing licences for such restaurants, pubs or clubs. “The pubs and clubs operating on terrace tops had been notified that their licences would not be renewed. NYXs Club was one such,” a BBMP health department official said.

The Director of Fire and Emergency Services B G Chengappa said the structure of this pub was apparently in clear violation of fire and emergency services’ guidelines. “Moreover, it is the responsibility of every owner to ensure that fire safety measures are installed in their buildings,” he said.

Was homa the cause?

The fire at the NYXs pub on Residency Road on Monday might well have been caused by a ‘homa’ which was being performed in the premises. Eye witnesses from neighbouring buildings claimed that the fire indeed started as flames from the homa had not settled down. According to reliable sources at the spot, around 25 priests from Benares had been invited by the owners of the building to perform the ritual at the terrace adjacent to the pub. While the homa was in progress, the flames engulfed the bamboo setting at the pub. Sources also claimed that the liquor at the pub aggravated the fire leading to more destruction of property. Speaking to Deccan Herald, one of the priests said he and his colleagues were caught unawares by the fire.

Fire in Bangalore Gold Towers Konark Hotel

Fire in Bangalore Gold Towers office-cum-commercial complex.

The latest news is pouring in that a fire broke out on the fifth floor terrace of the Gold Towers office-cum-commercial complex, in Bangalore on Monday.So far no casualties have been reported.According to sources, the fire erupted in a tin shed at 1.45 p.m. The complex is located on the busy Residency Road. Till now, the four fire engines has been battling the flames.In February, an inferno at the Carlton Towers that broke out due to a short circuit claimed nine lives in the city and left 50 injured. It is high time now that the authorities should wake up from their deep slumber and do something about the safety of its people.

Petrol Tanker Fire at Nelamangala

30 shops gutted in Sante Honda

The aftermath:A vegetable vendor surveys the site of the fire at the Sante Honda market in Chitradurga on Thursday.

Chitradurga: As many as 30 shops were destroyed in a fire reportedly caused by a short-circuit at the Sante Honda vegetable market here on Thursday. According to the police, the fire started early on Thursday and large quantities of horticultural produce were destroyed in the blaze.
Fire and Emergency Services personnel, who doused the fire, said that the wooden planks and the tarpaulin sheets used to cover the produce resulted in the fire spreading quickly.
Deputy Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas estimated the loss to be between Rs. 3 lakh and Rs. 4 lakh. The tahsildar and the Chitradurga City Municipal Council had been asked to assess the exact loss, he added. As there was no loss of life no compensation would be given, Mr. Biswas said. “However, we have promised to get the shops rebuilt under the Backward Region Grant funds (BRGF)”, he said. He also added that the CMC had discretionary powers to disburse a limited amount of compensation to the vendors.

From The Hindu dated 09-04-2010

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