What we can learn from Mumbai fire mishap?

The ghastly fire at the Swanky Lotus Business Park in Mumbai was in the headlines of all leading Indian national newspapers in the last month. The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that it took almost one full day for the fire fighting team to bring the flames under control while one of the firefighters succumbed to his injuries due to smoke inhalation.

Fire fighters were left trapped on the top floor of the business park worsening the situation. The use of Navy and coast guard helicopters were pressed into service to evacuate the trapped fire fighters. All this could have been avoided if the fire fighting norms were taken seriously by the building management and developers.

Lotus Business Park is not an isolated case as a large number of high rise including both commercial and residential buildings give no attention to the fire evacuation norms and emergency plans. By the time they are faced with such a situation, it is usually too late leading to loss of life and money.

No room for adequate ventilation

In case of Lotus Business Park, since the building was designed with a glass facade, there was no room for adequate ventilation. This meant that the fire was able to spread much faster in the building compared to other buildings.

Since the building was located close to the sea face, the heavy gush of winds made the fire spread much more rapidly than anticipated by the fire fighting authorities.

Fire department lack advance firefighting equipment

The fire department also uses age old methodologies to bring fire under control with no proper emphasis on technological up gradation. Not only does the Fire department lack advance firefighting equipment, they still use traditional communication methods to communicate with each other.

The audacity of the organization can be understood from the fact that the department uses hand-held walkie-talkies inducted almost fifty years ago. Communication messages from the residents of the society or building to the fire tenders also get lost due to such poor navigation and communication systems.

In this day and age where GPS technologies are common in almost every mobile phone, the fire department communication system leaves a lot to be desired.

Prevention is better than cure

While it is a fact that builders and developers ignore fire mishap and other accidental rescue procedures while construction, it is also true that fire fighting administration needs an urgent overhaul, spreading awareness can lead to a substantial decrease in such fire hazards. Prevention is better than cure goes the famous cliché and it must be the endeavor of each individual to update oneself on the common causes of fire accidents.

Adopting proper preventive measures

From cutting out smoking, to adopting proper preventive measures while cooking in the kitchen it’s usually the small measures that can go a long way in eradicating fire. The use of hazardous materials and highly inflammable substances must be avoided at all costs. Since a lot of fires start due to electric short circuiting, proper and regular maintenance of electric circuits must be conducted for each building.

Spreading awareness

With a little bit of awareness and self control one can make sure that root causes of residential fires are reduced by a big way. Of course the developers will need to be pushed to make sure they plan a proper escape route and follow all fire escape norms while construction, the fire department also needs to get its act together and make sure precious lives are not lost due to their inefficient methodologies and old communication devices.

What are the Lapses made by Lotus Business Park developers?

• Violation of Fire norms: The building violated basic fire safety measures and the fire fighting norms were not taken seriously by the building management and developers.
• No water in the tanks: During the fire mishap, the building had no water in the tanks.
• Dead Generators: The generator of the building was not working during the incident happened.
• No smoke detector: The building had no sprinklers and fire safety device like smoke detector were inactive during the fire mishap.
• No room for adequate ventilation: As the building was designed with a glass facade, there was no room for adequate ventilation.