Gurugram: It took the life of a young mother to make the residents again aware of how ill-prepared Gurugram high rises are in fire safety mechanism. Various flaws were reported during the Monday fire incident that resulted in the untimely death of Swati Garg. To begin with, the smog alarm was found to be dysfunctional that made most of the residents unaware of the mishap that had occurred in their condominium society.
What made the matters worse that the door to the terrace was locked that resulted in Swati being stranded at the stairs and choking to the death. While these are small issues that should have been looked into, investigations are on about the possible reasons for short circuit in the electric shaft that resulted in the fire. "Poorly maintained old electric wires are a major source of fire in houses and buildings. In most of the high rise buildings, the electrical installations are not properly ventilated. The intense load results in overheating of these installations thus causing the fire, it is important that on yearly basis the electric wires must be surveyed," said Dr VK Paul, HoD of Building and Engineering Management of School and Planning Architecture.
According to official data, over 200 high rise buildings are at a height of 15 meters which do not have NoC from fire safety officials. It is estimated that around 7,000 people reside in these buildings.
An RTI had earlier revealed that over 60 private schools are also functioning without the NoC. Most of the builders have to renew the fire safety licence after every one year. The fire department officials mention that most of them have not renewed their licence for more than two years. While the aggrieved family has registered the complaint against builder and the facility management company, major flaws were also reported from the Fire Department.
Even though it has been promised that new fire stations are going to come up in the new sectors, the plan has not been implemented. Not only did it take an hour for the fire tender vehicles to reach the spot, it also took more than two hours to douse the fire. To revamp the fire department purchases of the hydraulic platform of 100 meters, 70 meters and 32 meters along with high crane vehicles will be made, it has however not been done as yet. Such is the state of affairs that most of the essential equipment for the fire department are being provided by the private fire station which is coincidentally the largest in city.