Bhubaneswar, April 29: Several tinderbox government buildings here are playing with fire as they do not follow safety norms or have fire-fighting equipment in place.

What’s more, the fire department is much like a toothless tiger when it comes to implementing safety norms, because it is not empowered to take action against violators.

Fire department officials said that they provided no-objection certificates to high-rise buildings — both private and government — after checking that they were constructed in observance of safety norms. But later, the rules were not followed in any of these buildings. The fire officials said they did not have the power to take action against the violators, as there was no such provision in the law.

“The Odisha Fire Service Act was passed in 1993, but the rules have not been framed till date. After the rules are framed, we will be able to penalise violators and ensure that the safety norms are followed properly,” said a senior official.

Additional director-general, fire service, B.K. Behera had recently said the government had asked for clarifications about the rules provided by fire officers and they had cleared the doubts. “We hope the rules will be framed very soon, as this will give power to our employees to enforce the fire safety norms,” said Behera.

One example of a government building turning a blind eye to fire safety is the Commissionerate Police building. Sources said the building, which was inaugurated on April 1, 2011, has not got a fire safety no-objection certificate (NOC). The authorities concerned should have procured the NOC while the building was being constructed.

A fire mishap on Saturday has rung the alarm bells for fire officials. Four persons had a narrow escape when Rajiv Bhavan, an annexe building of the state secretariat, caught fire on Saturday.

Major casualties were averted thanks to the timely action of fire fighters. Following the incident, fire officials have said that within next week they would conduct fire safety checks at major government buildings such as the state legislative Assembly and the heads of departments’ building.

“We will first check the fire-fighting equipment available at these buildings and whether they are in working condition. We will check aspects such as whether the buildings have space for fire tenders to move in easily, and availability of water in the vicinity. We will give reports to the authorities concerned to take steps to adhere to the fire safety norms,” said fire prevention officer Manoranjan Bhol, who deals with fire safety arrangements in high-rise buildings in the state.

On Saturday, a fire tender attached to a hydraulic crane could not come close to Rajiv Bhavan as the entrance was too narrow. The fire officials had no option but to bring a fire tender small enough to pass through the gate. But it had a small tank, and so, when the water was exhausted, fire fighters had to make arrangements to draw water from the other tender parked outside the gate.

The fire officials were unhappy not just with the narrow entry gate, but with the overall fire-fighting arrangements at this nine-storey building in which six government offices are located.

“The fire extinguishers had passed their expiry dates. There was no space for fire tenders to move into the premises of the building. There were no alternate escape routes,” said assistant fire officer Ramesh Chandra Majhi, who led the fire fighting team on Saturday.

Officials said advanced fire safety measures were being implemented at the state secretariat at present. The works department has been carrying out modernisation of fire prevention measures at the secretariat building. For this, it has a sanctioned fund of Rs 1 crore for augmenting the fire-fighting system with fire hydrant manuals and fire alarm systems.

A fire station for the state secretariat was to be set up in its vicinity. But illegal encroachment on the designated plot of 0.385 acres behind Rajiv Bhawan has been delaying the plan.

The government has already granted Rs 94 lakh for the infrastructure development of the station. The fire station is at present operating from the fire-training institute at Baramunda.