RULES TO FOLLOW, BUT WHO CARES

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 11: Property worth lakhs of rupees was gutted when a fire broke out at the Axis Bank branch on the second floor of Mallick Commercial Complex in Kharvela Nagar this morning.

Though the exact reason of the fire is yet to be ascertained, fire officials suspect a short-circuit to be have triggered the mishap.

The fire was spotted around 6.45am when the security guard deployed at the complex saw smoke billowing out of the bank. "I saw a thick cloud of smoke coming out of the building. I immediately called up the fire station," said the security guard.

A number of documents, computers and other equipment were destroyed in the fire at the bank that functions as a cheque clearance centre. Fire officials said the cost of the gutted property would be more than Rs 10 lakh.

"It took 20 firemen 90 minutes to douse the flames. We used four fire tenders. The building did not have proper fire safety equipment," said secretariat fire station in-charge Rohit Kumar.

The incident has raised questions on fire safety measures in high-rise buildings. Even some cinemas in the city allegedly do not have a proper fire safety mechanism in place.

In March, police had rejected the licence renewal application of Ravi Talkies, one of the oldest cinemas in the city, owing to the lack of adequate fire safety measures. The police said the theatre had not produced the fire clearance certificate while applying for renewal. According to the rules, all cinemas need to produce a fire clearance certificate from the police. The licence needs to be renewed every year.

Sources said even some multi-storey government buildings were ill-equipped to tackle fire accidents. This has resulted in several fire tragedies, including those at Rajeev Bhavan and the heads of the directorate building commonly known as Natala.

A fire official said high-rise buildings should install automatic smoke detection and fire alarms so that any fire mishap could be detected at the earliest. The reason why people manage to get around the law is that the rules under the Odisha Fire Service Act, which was passed in 1993, are yet to be framed.

"Once the rules are framed, we will be able to penalise violators and ensure that safety norms are followed properly," said a fire official.

The state government in November decided to frame rules to make the state fire service more effective to ensure implementation of fire fighting measures. Speaking at a seminar on fire-safety measures in high-rise buildings last month, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said the rules would be framed shortly.

• All buildings higher than 15 metres need to have fire security arrangements, say National Building Code of India 2005 guidelines

• Such buildings need to have at least two staircases for evacuation
• Automatic fire detection system should be in place. There should also be a fire lift so that the firemen can reach all parts of the building
• Automatic sprinkler system should be in place
• There should be an overhead tank or underground tank and hosepipes to tackle fire
• Fire extinguishers also need to be refilled regularly