In many buildings, dozens of coaching centres are being operated and most of them lack even fire extinguishers

By | Published: 10:45 pm 1:08 am

Hyderabad: There are many lessons for Hyderabad to learn from the tragic fire incident in Surat that occurred two days back, in which nearly 20 students perished, as number of coaching centres, schools, education institutes are being operated in cramped complexes flouting basic safety rules.

In many buildings, dozens of coaching centres are being operated and most of them lack even fire extinguishers. Not just coaching centres, schools and colleges too are run in commercial complexes lacking proper escape mechanism, have no provision for emergency exit and more importantly sufficient ventilation.

These violations can be noticed in many commercial complexes housing different coaching centres, educational institutes and others in Ameerpet, Dilsukhnagar, Kukatpally and few other areas in the city.

Analysing the reasons behind the Surat fire mishap, experts mentioned that the building lacked alternative means of escape from top floors, the staircase was made of wood allowing the fire escalating upstairs fast and devoured the terrace as the air-conditioners, compressors and tyres were kept in the covered roof. No proper ventilation and fire safety measures were also absent in the building. All these factors increased the death toll in the incident, they observed.

The experts pointed out that there were nearly 50 persons in the Takshashila Complex in Surat when the massive fire broke out at the coaching centre The first three floors of the building had shops and offices and top floor which was covered by a dome-like structure ran summer classes teaching fashion designing course, a personality development course and a gymnasium, among other summer drawing classes for children.

The analysis of the mishap, experts said, showed that fire was caused by a short circuit in an electrical box near wooden staircase on the ground floor and spread quickly to the wooden stairway which connected the third floor leading to the terrace, forcing some students to take shelter on the covered roof- top of the building. A lot of smoke accumulated on the top floor where there were AC compressors and tyres, which also caught fire resulting in trapping the victims to escape from the terrace.

As thick black smoke billowed from the top floors of the four-storyed building, several students jumped off the third and fourth floor of the building in a bid to escape the blaze, it was pointed out.

GHMC moots inclusion of ‘Educational’ category

The Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management of the GHMC had pressed for inclusion of “Educational” category of occupancy for building plan approval to make the school managements follow fire safety measures.

At present, the GHMC issues building plan approvals for domestic and commercial structures.

The EVDM recommended the inclusion of Educational category for occupancy during building plan approval which would make the school managements to apply and obtain under this category. There are over 5,800 schools in GHMC limits and most of them are lacking fire safety measures or firefighting systems.

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