Many shopping complexes and hospitals in Calcutta, mostly medium and small ones, lack dedicated firefighting teams, fire department officials have found during a Fire Safety Week awareness campaign across the city.
Many of these establishments have, however, trained their security guards or other staff to be the first responders in a blaze till the fire tenders arrive, they added.
Since the 2011 fire at the then AMRI Dhakuria that claimed 90-odd lives, the state government has been insisting that business establishments have dedicated firefighting teams, or at least provide regular training to their staff in firefighting
measures.
However, the government acknowledges that such measures may be too costly for some of the small and medium establishments.
The state fire and emergency services department carried out awareness campaigns across 350-odd establishments across Calcutta last week.
“Our campaigns targeted shopping malls, hospitals, schools, gated communities and slum areas,” a senior officer at the fire services headquarters said.
“We found that most medium and small commercial establishments do not have separate firefighting teams and have engaged security guards to double as fire responders in an emergency.”
The lack of periodic training sessions means, however, that their knowledge has rusted, sources said.
“The focus of the weeklong campaign was to ensure that even if an establishment lacked dedicated firefighting teams, they should train at least multiple staff members who can either operate fire extinguishers or help the evacuation process effectively till the fire tenders arrive,” director-general (fire and emergency services) Ranveer
Kumar said.
A divisional fire officer highlighted another problem: An agency security guard who has been trained in firefighting might not be on duty at the facility at the precise moment when a fire breaks out.
“It’s always advisable to have dedicated teams. Some of the big hospitals along EM Bypass have such teams whose sole purpose is fire management. But smaller hospitals and nursing homes do not have such arrangements,” said the officer, posted with the north division of the fire and emergency services.
North Calcutta is home to at least 40 such relatively small hospitals that lack dedicated firefighting teams, the officer said.
During last week’s visit, spot training was imparted to nurses and security guards at these hospitals so that they could be the first responders till the fire tenders arrived.
The officers who visited shopping malls last week imparted training to the mall authorities to keep regular tabs on their smoke management system, maintain “pressurisation” in the staircases, and check if the sprinklers are operational and whether their staff and firefighting teams have up-to-date knowledge of operating fire extinguishers.
The teams that visited schools told the teachers, students and non-teaching staff that in case of a fire, the first response should be to evacuate the building, gather on the ground and stand in a line so that heads can be counted, a fire department officer said.
Teams that went to the residential complexes educated the RWAs on the importance of installing fire-safety gadgets and on the dos and don’ts if an LPG leak causes a fire.
Last week, a fire broke out at a sweet shop inside Queens Mansion, a heritage building on Park Street, immediately reviving memories of the Stephen Court inferno that claimed 43 lives 15 years ago. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured this time.
A fire that broke out in Acropolis Mall last year shut it down for 49 days before the firefighting system could be revived.