A highrise in Patna. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Jan. 23: The capital may take pride in its swanky highrises but they paint a pathetic picture on the fire safety front. The fire department cannot take action against them in want of a fire prevention act.

Sources in the fire department said the state government had been considering to constitute the act but nothing has happened so far.

Occupants of most of the highrises admitted that most of the buildings were defying the rules and the government had been turning a blind eye to it.

Bela Sinha, a homemaker, said: “I stay in an apartment in Boring Canal Road area. In the name of fire safety arrangement, there is a fire extinguisher. It is without gas for the past several years and no one cares. I have never seen any authority from the fire department or the district administration come and inspect the equipment. Why is nobody acting on it? Is the government waiting for a major tragedy to happen before they wake up to the urgent requirements of people?”

Ramesh Chandra, the state fire officer, expressed his department’s inability to take any action against the fire safety norm violators.

“At present, all we can do is to recommend to install the fire safety equipment and the measures to be taken. But if a unit does not comply with this, we cannot take any action,” Chandra said.

“We know that most of the apartment blocks, hotels and commercial complexes do not have proper fire safety arrangements in place. But we are not empowered to do anything against them. There is very little awareness on its importance,” he said.

The official said the fire safety features of highrises should be inspected regularly to save lives and to minimise property damage in case of a mishap. Santosh Gupta, the additional director of the fire project cell of the Union home ministry, told The Telegraph that the fire prevention act was a necessity.

“At present National Building Code (NBC) is in place in Bihar. It specifically prescribes fire safety norms for buildings,” Gupta, who was in Patna recently, said.

The official said NBC specifies the demarcation of fire zones, restrictions on construction of buildings in each fire zone, classification of buildings based on occupancy, types of building construction according to fire resistance of the structural and non-structural components and other restrictions and requirements necessary to minimise danger to life from fire, smoke, fumes or panic before the buildings can be evacuated.