Unlicensed commercial establishments to also come under ambit of fire audit

KOLKATA: The state Fire and Emergency Services department will bring commercial complexes located in densely populated areas in the city

and its fringes, which do not have fire licenses, under fire audit.

The move comes in the wake of a major fire at a tannery in Meher Ali Lane in Tangra on March 14 following which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim to set up a 'high-power committee' to identify godowns in the city that are located in similar congested areas and can catch fire easily."Apart from the commercial buildings with fire licenses, we will also hold fire audits of those properties that do not have such licenses. If we find any lacunae in terms of infrastructure for fire-figting we will serve notices for rectification and if they continue non-compliance, action will be taken as per law," state Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose said.

The fire audit exercise of the department was affected amidst Covid for two years

but now the department has pulled up its socks in this regard.

Banerjee had instructed Hakim to form a high-power committee comprising

representatives of the police, fire and emergency services, KMC, CESC and state

Power department. The committee has been formed and a meeting of the same was held recently.

The responsibility of the committee will be to conduct a survey of the densely populated areas in greater Kolkata and check fire-fighting infrastructure, water source, entry and exit passage for movement of fire tenders. They will submit a report to the Fire department and accordingly measures will be taken.

The Kolkata Police has a map of the waterbodies in the city which will help the committee in doing the survey.

The fire at the tannery in Meher Ali Lane was extinguished after 16 hours and it was found that it did not have any fire safety clearance from the department.