Does your apartment have functional fire-fighting equipment?
It is essential to make sure that all firefighting equipment is up-to-date and in perfect working condition. A little care and awareness on your part can avoid a major disaster.
The Indian realty sector has been blossoming with a large number of projects coming up in both metropolitan and smaller cities and towns. Easy availability of home loans and an increase in purchasing power of buyers has enhanced the realty sector. This growing rush has made builders to focus more on creating large volume of inventory and sometimes neglect the most basic security features including fire hazards. Even the posh residential apartments are not immune from this security glitch and are prone to fire hazards mainly due to non-compliance of fire safety audits.
According to the rules, every housing society needs to conduct a fire safety audit once in every six months and submit to their respective municipal corporation offices. The fire safety hazard norms are proposed by a national body known as the National Building Code (NBC). Builders and enforcement agencies, including Municipal Corporation and fire department sometimes fail to follow the stringent procedures owing to potential fire risks.
Periodic checking of firefighting equipment
For the housing society as a whole it is essential to make sure that all fire fighting equipment is up-to-date and in perfect working condition. While six monthly audits do check the functioning of the fire fighting devices, they should be checked each month by the designated society members to make sure that are always functional in case of any emergencies.
Fire Safety Audit
The best way to avoid any potential fire hazard risk is to make sure your society gets its fire safety audit conducted at the appropriate time every six months. Check with your society secretary about the due date for the fire safety process and make sure that society approached the fire department for the fire safety audit. It is seen in a large number of cases that the fire safety department conducts an audit only for those societies who voluntarily approach the fire department.
With a large number of buildings popping up in each municipal zone, it is hard for the fire department to keep a tab on fire audit expiry dates. The onus therefore lies with the housing societies to make sure they have their fire audits conducted well in time.
It is imperative to understand that fire audits by no means guarantees full protection from any untoward incident. Fires can take place due to a number of factors, including electric short circuit, LPG gas leaks and other factors like negligence by society residents. A little care and awareness on your part can avoid a major disaster and save precious lives and property. Fire prevention and creating awareness about the emergency process in case of a fire can help save a number of lives.
Ways to Prevent Fire
If every society residents follows some basic rules like not storing inflammable materials inside the building and taking precaution while using LPG cylinders, fires can be prevented to a large extent. Do not forget to switch-off the electrical mains and to close the window shutters before leaving the home on long tour. Also unauthorized electrical connections and over load the electrical points must be avoided.
