Fire Safety

By Prachi Goel

A chilly December morning - A hall packed with 1500 people. Parents cheering up for their children! A family of five, two daughters and a son performing in the event, while parents who came to witness their performance, sat amongst the audience. However, little did they know it was their last time together as a family!

No – do not mistake this for a scene from a movie, this is the real life horror of Mr. Bansal from Dabwali, Haryana. Yes, it was in December 1995, when DAV school of the town had organised its annual function at Rajiv marriage hall, a massive fire broke out. People ran haphazardly with melted synthetic material of the tent, melted with fire, fell on them. Within seven minutes the cheerful hall was turned into a graveyard holding 442 dead bodies, which included 258 children. Mr. Bansal lost his wife Renu, 5 years old son and 7 years old daughter. Mr. Bansal lives on with his physical deformities, which happened as an aftermath of the tragedy. His elder daughter still gets nightmares of the entire episode.

“Don’t let your dreams go up in smoke – practice fire safety.”

Had the school practiced safety, the dreams of all those parents and of all those children would have lived with them today. Had this mishap been averted, Mr. Bansal’s family of five wouldn’t have been reduced to a traumatised two member family. Analysis of this case suggests:

1. The program was planned under a synthetic tent set up inside the building.

The school authorities should have paid attention to the risk involved with it.

2. This tent caught fire resulting from short-circuit in an electric generator.

Regular audit of the building would have brought to light the shortcomings in the given context.

3. The school management had locked the main gate of the building as the tent was already packed beyond its capacity. Multiples exits would have helped avoiding stampede as well as in helping people escape.

PRACHI GOEL FIRE SAFETY

4. The fire spread and blocked the main entrance. A lot of deaths were caused by the stampede as people tried to escape through the single exit door.

If the school and society practiced mock drills in a routinely manner, the number of deaths would be much lesser.

Besides this, presence of fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and smoke detectors, exit and emergency lights would have helped reducing the magnitude of the tragedy to some extent. Also, if parents were careful and paid heed to the security arrangements of the event, things would have been different. Truly they say ,” “Do Your Part And Fire Won’t Start.”

This was in 1995 and now even after these many years, nothing has changed! The situation in every fire tragedy remains the same! The question remains the same “can we do better next time?” because looking at the current level of fire safety system in the country, doesn’t look like we are any closer to reducing the number of such tragedies to a bare minimum.

Fire accidents are not novel in India. The average number of daily deaths resulting from a fire in India amounts to 51 people. Fire services in India came under the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution of India, under the provisions of Article 243W of the Constitution and was first started in Bombay in 1803.

KEY CHALLENGES

• Not enough fire stations across the country.

• Understaffing of existing fire stations

• Lack of equipments for large scale fires

• Lack of awareness.

-Mostly staff of factories and companies are completely unaware of emergency exits and norms to be followed to escape in case of a fire breakout. Laymen are not aware of fire prevetion measures. Schools, office, companies, societies – all should practice mock drills to spread awareness as well as rehearse in case any unforeseen circumstances prevail. People in general, are unaware of the basic knowledge of fire prevention. Use of wrong extinguishers not only make it difficult for people to escape, it also leads to bigger explosions and larger damage of the site.Waste

PRACHI GOEL FIRE SAFETY

segregation is something which needs attention as well. Discarding combustible and flammable materials properly should be a norm.

• Faulty electrical equipments

1. Maintaining electrical devices : People should be trained to avoid home based fire hazards as well as take care of their electrical equipments. Regular checks on electrical circuits in homes/offices/schools etc. can help avoiding fire hazards resulting from short circuits. Maintenance of electrical equipments should be a routine.

2. Clutter/ Dust : Collection of things, with no air gaps for machineries; layer of dust increases the chances of a fire breakout. Poor ventilated areas lead to overheating of machinery and can possibly cause fire.

The Amri fire tragedy in Kolkata in December, 2011 was a fire hazard which took place in a hospital. The fire had resulted from a short circuit, resulting in burning of

inflammable materials around it. Not only this, the smoke was carried by the centralised air conditioning system , which caused death of 95 people due to asphyxiation.

• Handling combustibe materials : proper training and education on handling combustible materials can help avoiding fire hazards.

• Human error / negligence: carelessness causes a bulk of fire hazards : leaving a fire/oil lamp unattended, spilling flammable liquids or improper use of machinery.

• Lack of facilities: Fire extinguishers, emergency lights, foot light and exit lights, smoke detectors and smoke alarm systems, emergency exits – this are elements which help combat fire. However, it is sad to note that these are not always incorporated in building design in India. And in turn, it leads in an uncontrolled fire hazard, causing severe damage.

The Uphaar fire tragedy in 1997 in Green Park, Delhi was one such example where people were trapped inside the cinema hall owing to lack of emergency lights and exit lights and blocked exits(due to illegal shops).

Though things have improved from then to now, but we are still far away from 100% implementation of fire safety guidelines.

PRACHI GOEL FIRE SAFETY

• Illegal building plans – lack of regulatory impetus for the national building code.

Cramped localities limiting escape are a usual scenario in case of a fire breakout in India. Besides this, a lot of high –rise building do not follow the guidelines laid by NBC (National Building Cod and as mentioned above,aren’t well equipped to fight fire.

The Anaj Mandi fire tragedy in Delhi in December,2019 is one such example where the building was an illegal construction and was situated in tapered lanes.

• Improper storage of flammable materials : Flammable materials are substances which ignite easily and burn quickly. They are commonly present at most work sites and can be in any of the three states – solid /liquid /gas.

Examples – natural gas, propane, gasoline,paints and paint thinners, some types of coal, gunpowder etc.

• Proper segregation of waste

GENERAL IDEA

TYPES OF FIRE

A fire needs oxygen, fuel and heat to start. Without any of these, a fire cannot take place. So the key strategy in preventing a fire should be elimination of one or more of these three components.

PRACHI GOEL FIRE SAFETY

There are five categories of fire based on their potential sources:

• Class A - fires involving solid materials such as wood, paper or textiles. • Class B - fires involving flammable liquids such as petrol, diesel or oils. • Class C – energized electrical fire

• Class D – metallic fire

• Class K – cooking fires (animal /vegetable oils/fats)

Fire extinguishers are portable devices which help in controlling small fires. Different types of extinguishers are as follows:

• ABC fire extinguisher - effective for A, B and C types of fires. Uses monoammonium phosphate .

• Carbon dioxide fire extinguisher – effective on B type fire. Extinguishes Co2 and leaves no residue.

• Wet Chemical fire extinguisher – effective on K type fire. Is ideal for kitchens.

• Water mist fire extinguisher – effective on A,B,C and K types of fires. • Foam fire extinguisher – effective on A and B types of fires.

• Clean agent fire extinguisher – effective on B and C types of fires. It is a type of gaseous fire suppression.

Suggestive remedies

1. Fire awareness programmes should be planned and presented for public routinely. Mock drills should be made mandatory in every sector of society –be it a residential area/schools/offices/hospitals etc.

2. Fire prevention equipment should be available in every building in adequate amount.

3. NBC should lay tight guidelines in following fire safety norms for every building, failing which the construction shouldn’t be granted permission to commence. Fire alarms; smoke detectors;

emergency and exit lights should be provided in every public building as well as public places.

PRACHI GOEL FIRE SAFETY

4. Cramped localities should be avoided to grow and should be checked for their fire handling status.

5. Regular audit of machinery in factories, industries, offices and places which use any kind of electrical devices should be done regularly.

6. Proper segregation of waste materials should be compulsory and in case of denial, the person/authorities should be penalised. 7. Architects and urban planners should take responsibility of designing buildings and sapces which follow the norms of fire safety.

8. New technologies should be incorporated in this system to upgrade it to a better level.

9. Schools can start fire safety programmes as a regular activity, where they can carry out practicals on the same by giving the students chance to educate the uneducated on the topic and also, by spreading awareness.

Conclusion

Current level of fire safety management in the country shows dissatisfactory results and provides minimal strategies to alleviate fire hazards. We, as a society, should learn to shoulder this responsibility to play our part in combating fire hazards. If architects, urban –planners and developers can religiously follow NBC’s fire safety guidelines in context to building and space deisgn, the country can definitely overcome the high number of fire hazards. Research and training is required to improve fire safety in buildings. This should include cost

effective fire suppression systems and rational fire design approaches. knowledge imparted through awareness programmes at every major and minor sectors of the society will turn fire hazards into a rare thing. The need of the hour is to understand and spread awareness on fire safety to overcome fire hazards. Together we can !

“Fire Destruction Is One Man’s Job, Fire Prevention Is Everybody’s Job.”

• (https://www.factchecker.in/indias-fire-preparedness-a-factcheck/)

• (https://india.ul.com/featured/a-tale-of-two-fires-and-what-it-means-for-india/ • (https://blog.koorsen.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-fire extinguishers-their-uses)

PRACHI GOEL FIRE SAFETY

• https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/1995-dabwali-fire accident-victim-i-will-never-forget-my-children-the-other-victims/

PRACHI GOEL FIRE SAFETY

By Prachi Goel