Panel slams PGIMER firefighting power

Incidentally,a shocking revelation which came to light was that a fire riser,which is used to distribute water to multiple levels of a building or structure as a component of the fire suppression systems,has been blocked by the construction of a room for the officiating head of the department of biostatistics,Dr Parmod Kumar,on the second floor of the Cobalt Block.

Since the fire riser is located in his room,which remains locked in his absence,in case of an emergency situation,there would be no other option but to break open the lock of the room.

It was also mentioned that a sprinkler system needs to be present for the central store.

As per the observations made by the pre-fire audit committee of PGIMER,a list of pending works was prepared in a meeting held on June 8 and observations regarding pending work pertaining to fire safety were made.

In fact,the issues pertaining to providing adequate fire safety measures were flagged in a recent meeting held on June 9. The director,PGIMER,Dr Yogesh Chawla,instructed all the officers of the engineering department and the fire officer to complete the fire safety-related work by June 15. However,nothing has been done so far in the matter to remove these audit objections.

Surprisingly,there are no fire alarm systems. The auditors categorically mentioned that alarm systems need to be installed in various institutes of the hospital like,National Institute of Nursing Education,School of Public Health,Dental,Research Block A and B,throughout the building of Nehru Hospital,and administrative block of the Kairon Block.

It was also mentioned that the fire escape-route stairs at the ground floor of the Advanced Eye Centre need to be repaired. Also,the lightning system of the fire escape-route research block A and B needs maintenance.

The audit mentioned that fire signage needs to be installed at Research Block A and B,Library,Nehru Hospital and Animal House.

Another observation was to keep main fire pump house in auto position and to check leakage. The auditors also suggested replacing fire escape routes other than replacing wooden doors with glass doors at the sixth floor of operation theatre area in Advanced Paediatrics Centre.