Bhubaneswar, May 19: Seven fire mishaps have taken place at the secretariat in the last five years. But the proposed fire station for this seat of Odisha administration remains a non-starter.

Yesterday’s fire at the secretariat, coming within a month of a similar incident at the nearby Rajiv Bhavan, has again brought to the fore the need of a fire station in the area.

Apart from the secretariat many important buildings such as heads of department, its two annex offices, accountant’s general’s office, Secha Sadan (irrigation department), Nirman Soudha (works department), superintending engineer’s office of the Public Health Engineering Organisation, rural water supply and sanitation, Sikshya Sadan (office of the Odisha primary education programme authority), a new treasury building, Odisha Bhasa Pratisthan, directorate of geology, directorate of dams safety, sub-collector’s office, a division office of the works department and town planning directorate are located within 300 metres.

The Assembly building, Rabindra Mandap, state guest house, information and public relations department office, office of the commissionerate of police and special circuit house are within 350 to 400 metres from the proposed site of the fire station, which is behind the Rajiv Bhavan.

In yesterday’s incident, fire tenders reached the spot around 15 minutes after getting the call. Had there been a fire station in the area, the fire tenders would have needed just five minutes to reach the location.“The fire station should be the top priority of the state government as there are many important buildings in which thousands of government employees work,” said Kedar Singh, a government employee.

Fire prevention officer Manoranjan Bhol said modern fire safety arrangements were being set up in the secretariat with a cost of Rs 1 crore. The works department has been carrying out the modernisation work. The new system will include hydrants and a fire-alarm system. A pump house will also be set up on the secretariat premises, which will enable the hydrants release water with pressure.

Though fire alarms existed in the health and family welfare department (where the mishap occurred), the employees alleged that these did not work when the fire broke out. Fire prevention officials said these fire alarms were not fully functional as the renovation work was still going on.

The secretariat building has five entry and exit points and sufficient open spaces for evacuation in case of any fire hazard. However, the building has only fire extinguishers to deal with any mishap.

Bhol also said that electric cables and wires should be checked regularly to prevent any short circuit. “There should be single main switch and the employees must shut down the equipment. Besides they must use circuit breakers at different zones in their offices, so that whenever there is an overloading problem the electric flow is cut off automatically and a mishap averted,” said the officer.

Meanwhile, after the Rajiv Bhavan fire incident the fire prevention officials have conducted an inspection and advised the authorities concerned to take safety measures.