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Mumbai, Saturday, Januray 21, 2012: After a major fire in Kolkata’s AMRI Hospital claimed 93 lives in December, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has served notices to 56 hospitals in the city for flouting fire safety norms. According to an inspection report by the Fire Brigade department, 56 hospitals were found in gross violation of fire safety norms, of which 30 are private and 26 are state-run, civic or peripheral.
“We have served notices to these hospitals and given them time ranging from 15 to 120 days depending on the type of deficiency or inadequate fire-fighting system,” said A R Patil, Deputy Chief Fire Officer. The hospitals were given notices under the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006.
“Mostly, the hospitals flout norms such as the open space around the building, approach roads for Fire Brigade, lack of fire safety equipment such as riser, sprinklers etc, or inadequate passages,” said Patil.
According to fire officials, even big private hospitals do not have adequate fire-fighting systems. Officials said while some hospitals are not maintaining the basements for the purpose they were approved, some have turned them into storage facilities for inflammable materials. In some cases, staircases, which are critical during fire rescue, were found to be blocked.
“The open space around the building is important as it might be needed to vacate patients in case of fire. Many times, the open space is used as a parking lot and causes problems if patients need to be vacated from the hospital,” said Patil.
The civic hospitals were seen to violate fire safety norms ranging from storage of inflammable material in the basement, missing fire safety apparatus or had structural defects.
According to a fire official, KEM, Sion and Nair, major civic hospitals were found to have inadequate fire safety equipment.
Of the major private hospitals which were served notices include Lilavati, Holy Family in Bandra West, Asian Heart Hospital in Bandra East, Seven Hills, Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Andheri West, Fortis, Hiranandani, Godrej, Tata, Bombay Hospital in Marine Lines.
The major civic or state-run hospitals include ENT, St George, Cama and INHS Ashwini, Kasturba, Nair in Parel and Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar. The civic administration had early last month decided to audit all city hospitals with more than 100 beds. Fire officials said a show-cause notice will be sent to hospitals which do not make the required changes within a maximum time period of 120 days.
The issue of fire safety has gained prominence after the AMRI Hospital fire in Kolkata on December 9 claimed the lives of 93 people, mostly patients strapped to the beds. Most victims suffocated to death due to heavy smoke as the fire had spread because of stock of highly combustible material in the basement. It was found that the private hospital did not have not have proper fire-fighting equipment.
Ref: financialexpress
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