More fire safety measures in offing,officials seek approval for new plans

“Having the mandatory fire chute could give rise to a monopoly of one company which supplies the chutes in India. The municipal commissioner is of the view that residents could be given alternative choices for fire safety. We have suggested some ideas to the commissioner which could be implemented for fire safety depending on the structure,need and choice of the owners of the building,” said H Mujawar,Chief Fire Officer.

According to officials,many options have been presented to the commissioner and the advantages and disadvantages of all of them have been discussed with him. “The new ideas include attaching a hook,lowering device along with a pulley which residents could use in case of a fire. The residents can gradually come down from the upper floors with the help of a body-harness, rope and pulley which will be attached near the windows on specific locations and floors,” said an official.

While the recently suggested new development control norms already proposed a internal fire chute which will act like a funnel and allow one person at a time to descend from any floor of the building to the ground level,the fire officials have also proposed the setting up of a zig-zag fire chute towards the external side of the building.

Another unique idea is to install collapsible lifts which are currently used only in Israel. According to an official,a building can install five to six lifts which could be installed on the top of the building along the dead wall where there is no opening or habitation. In case of fire,the lifts will automatically come down and through specific openings on certain floors residents could come out of the building.

The civic commissioner,Subodh Kumar had proposed in July this year,a mandatory internal fire chute in every high rise. Under the proposed amendments in the Development Control Rules (DCR),there was a provision to have mandatory fire check floors after every 70 metres of a building. It was also proposed to have a refuge area in every alternate floor.