Fire brigade keen to probe,Navy says no need

The Navy,however,maintained that the fire brigade’s assistance in the investigation would not be required. Its internal inquiry,headed by Commodore Deepak Bisht,is expected to take another month. “On the day of the fire,we appointed a Board of Inquiry and its report is expected in the next few weeks. This will be sent directly to the Ministry of Defence. The Navy has its own special fire fighting department which is engaged in the investigation. Currently,there is no need for a coordinated investigation with the civilian fire brigade,” said a Navy spokesperson.

Fire investigation reports are based on two significant aspects —circumstantial evidence and accounts of eyewitnesses,the fire brigade official said. This is necessary not only to ascertain the cause of the fire but to prevent any such incident from occurring in future. Based on the fire brigade’s experience of explosive materials,recommendations for improvement are made as part of the investigation report.

“Circumstantial evidence would not be possible to analyse since most of it was destroyed in the explosion. However there were a few guards and supervisors near the area at the time of the fire who would be able to help us,” the fire officer said. He added that in its report the Fire Brigade did not even have details of the casualties. “No information was provided to us. Our report was very basic detailing the rescue operation. We got to know how many people were trapped from news coverage.”

Deputy Chief Fire Officer P S Rahangdale confirmed the correspondence with the Navy. “We had sent them a letter to which we have even got a response. They are taking their time because of the complexity of the situation. This is after all a Defence Ministry body and a whole committee has been formed to look into this from the Navy’s side. So all we can do is wait.”