Jogeshwari fire lays bare apathy in implementing fire prevention norms

“The owner or occupier of a multi-storeyed building shall ensure that electrical installations and works inside the building are carried out and maintained in such a manner as to prevent danger due to shock, and fire hazards and the installation is carried out in accordance with relevant codes of practise,” states the CEA 2010 – Section 36.

“Mumbai is a city that has a large number of people living and working in close quarters that lead to overloaded circuits. We also have warm temperatures at least for a period of 8-10 months, therefore air conditioning systems are operational in every flat. These factors often put enormous strain on the electrical infrastructure, leading to short circuits,” a senior official working with the MFB told The Indian Express on Friday.

Authorities maintained that several residential structures are old buildings which don’t have a proper electrical wiring system, which often makes residents vulnerable to fires.

An MFB rule states that whenever a new building is being constructed or redeveloped, the local fire office has to issue an NOC after checking if all fire prevention systems are in place. The developer cannot sell or lease out the premises unless the NOC is given.

“Over the past five years, at least 80% of the high-rises that witnessed fire incidents didn’t have fire NOCs. These NOCs are issued after examining the electrical installations, the fire prevention system. But the developers don’t bother about taking the NOC and sell the properties on the basis of basic occupational certificates (OC) that are issued by the local civic ward office,” a senior official from the MFB stated.

Lack of manpower, resources

MFB officials said that even though they had announced conducting routine audits in commercial structures, the lack of manpower is a major concern, creating a roadblock in the system. According to the civic body’s data, the MFB has a strength of 2,400 employees out of which 1,686 are fire fighters. The officials said that Mumbai has a large population density and since the task of auditing requires largely administrative work, the current manpower is inadequate.

For the ongoing financial year – the BMC had allocated Rs 261 crore for the MFB, which was less than 1% of its Rs 74,000 crore budget. For the financial year 2024-25, the BMC had allocated Rs 159.61 crore.

“Over the past five years the focus of the civic administration has been to improve existing infrastructure towards fire fighting. We are focusing on getting fire fighting drones along with fire fighting robots and bikes to ensure there is a quick response from our end,” the MFB official said.

After the Kamala Mills fire incident in 2017, which claimed the lives of 22 people, the state government had proposed forming a fire prevention cell (FPC) which would conduct inspections of all entities under their jurisdiction to check whether fire safety norms were in place.

However, officials said that the cell only exists on paper today as there is a lack of manpower to carry out ground level inspections. At present, there are 35 fire stations in Mumbai and 19 mini fire stations. While the rules state that officials appointed for FPC should be different from fire fighters, sources confirmed that till date no dedicated recruitment has taken place to appoint officials for FPC.

Officials said that another key reason behind fire incidents is the lack of coordination between the MFB and the BMC’s civic ward offices. For example, after the JNS Business Centre fire, it was found that there were multiple alterations being made inside the property without any NOC from the civic body. Fire officials said that while the MFB is only concerned about the fire prevention system, it is the Development Plan (DP) department’s task to keep a track on properties that carry out alterations within the premises.

What can be done?

According to experts, prosecuting the management of private and commercial structures is the only way to raise awareness. Prabhat Rahangdale, former chief of disaster management of Maharashtra, who also served as Mumbai’s chief fire officer (CFO) between 2015 and 2020, said that even though there is a shortage of staffers, there is a dire need to prosecute violators who don’t follow fire safety rules.

“Whenever the MFB sends a notice to an entity they ask for time, it is not mandatory for us to give time and we can penalise them straightaway. After the Kamala Mills fire incident, we penalised 60-70 entities between 2017 and 2020. This raised massive awareness across the city and people started to take fire prevention rules seriously. This kind of stringent behaviour should come back again now,” Rahangdale told The Indian Express.

“It is true that there is a lack of manpower, but you have to start somewhere. If you target at least 5% of the entities and penalise violators found among them, that will also lead to some sort of awareness, which may prompt the building management authorities to take fire safety seriously,” he added.

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