FIRE

Wishing all my friends a Very Happy & Prosperous New Year. This is my first blog of year 2018. Topic of my today’s blog is the apathy of Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) towards the life of citizens. During last year also I have briefed my readers about the dismal way of working  by  staff of BMC. During last 2 weeks , two incidents have further added to the woes of citizens and 26 precious lives have been lost due to fire.

1. In the first incident 12 labourer lost their lives when in early hours of the morning fire took place in a farsan factory where gas cylinders caught fire due to suspected short circuit. As most of the workers were sleeping in the factory premises and with narrow exit passage all of them could not escape to safety. Not much media coverage except for one day.
2. In the second incident fire took place at the roof top pub/restaurant in the building in Central Mumbai. In this case also also the restaurant was operating without any fire extinguishers and there were no sign showing the way to fire exit and staircase leading to exit was also blocked. Most of the people who died took the refuge in the toilets of the restaurant, and their death occurred not due to fire but because of  suffocation by smoke.
3. After the second incident there was too much halla gulla in the media because in this case people who died belonged to high strata of society as compared to migrant worker who died in the first incident. Secondly few of the TV channels have their broadcasting stations in the same building, and they started  blaming about how the BMC have given the permission to the pub to operate without following the proper fire norms.
4. It is well known fact in Mumbai that BMC is the most corrupt body . The builder lobby has bought over local/state politicians and bureaucrats of BMC. These builders have no regards and respects for the rules and regulations of BMC and national building code. Few months back State Govt allowed that pub and restaurant can be opened at the terraces of the multi storied buildings, provided they follow all the BMC norms including fire safety.
5. Can BMC tell the public that all the permission they have given to roof top pub/restaurants in the recent past-  whether the builder had balance Floor Space Index ( FSI ) to cover the terraces , secondly what was the conditions of Fire Safety and was it carried out and made operational by the owners. It is well known facts that where ever these pubs or restaurants are being operated at roof tops , they are generally backed up/ or owned by the family of some politicians or bureaucrats, and without much hassle they get the permission by giving generous bribes to BMC officials.
6. In the case of the fire in restaurant last week, the owners who have strong political links are still absconding  but 2 managers have been arrested and remanded to police custody. What was their fault- because they were working in that establishment which have been given licence by BMC to operate. On the contrary all the BMC officials who inspected the premises and gave the licences should have been arrested.
7. What about double standards shown by the Media channels, who had their offices in the same building. One media channel claimed that their 2 security officers rescued so many people,  these media houses were aware that this building is fire hazard but they never cared to highlight this on their channel. Why??? This type of news does not generate TRPs, if they would have made enough noise about this  issue, it could have awaken the BMC and State Govt earlier and few precious lives could have been saved.
8. I am fully aware that  Architects and Building Engineering Designers when they design the buildings( as I have worked for 12 years in Building Engineering) take the utmost care about fire safety. But after the project is handed over to builder/promoter, when they do unauthorised alterations and  additions that time fire safety goes for toss and only aim is additional revenue. The permission to allow roof top restaurant is one such example. Next goof up happens while operating the fire safety system- I remember one such instance in recent past where in one multi storied commercial building where all the fire safety norms were adhered to but when the fire took place, it so happened that fire tank which was supposed to hold 100,000 litres of water was empty and fire pump was also not in operations. If such is attitude of operators then god only can save the lives.
9. Unless the Builder lobby and BMC officials  change their behaviour towards fire safety , fires are going to take place any where and every where and lives are going to be lost. One more thing Mumbai City is grown too big and it is like a small state, BMC Commissioner and Municipal Councillors can not handle the affairs of  Mumbi city and Suburbs . It is known fact that the BMC officials come under pressure from City as well state politicians and they do not have any choice but to bow down to the politicians demands.
10. Last but not the least- It is high time that the govts at all level( City, State and Centre) take some drastic steps to save the commercial capital of the country , else I can not even envisage what will happen to this maximum city.

In the end, what you my friends.

Awaiting for your feed backs and comment