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Ahmedabad: Complex had no fire safety gadget

After major fire at Sahjanand Complex, AMC says no document of existence of building available

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The firemen rescued 45 people, including 16 students
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In January 2018, four people died of asphyxiation in a grocery shop located in Naranpura. The deceased had been living in the grocery shop at the time. The incident which took place on Wednesday is similar, with people staying in a commercial unit, although there were no casualties.

There were no checks conducted by the estate department, fire department or health department, at a place where there was a godown and coaching classes.

"Any such commercial unit needs to have clearances from different departments of the civic body. From the health department, it must acquire a non-hazardous unit certificate, after which the estate department gives clearance regarding structure and design as per the plan and then comes the fire department's approval," said a senior AMC official.

After the fire, it was revealed that the building did not have any fire safety equipment. "It is a commercial complex and a coaching class was being operated when the fire started off. The coaching centre had a capacity of 100 students but did not have any fire safety equipment," said Rajesh Bhatt, fire officer of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

Bhatt said that the inspection of fire safety is done after the estate department asks the fire team. When contacted, deputy municipal commissioner JS Prajapati, who handles the estate department said that the building is very old. "The building where the incident happened was earlier part of the municipality which later on merged in the civic body's limit. The building is very old and was included in the municipality. That does not have any document," said the official.

However, many people claimed that the building was illegally constructed. "How come the AMC says there is no document? That means, it is illegal," asked Dinesh Sharma, leader of the opposition.

Firemen risked their lives to control the blaze 

As the premises of the building was congested there was no room for the fire truck to reach the location. With no scope to control the fire from outside, the firemen had to break inside the flaming complex. In order to the control the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings, a team of firemen forcefully got inside the complex by breaking the shutter locks of the shop. The firemen were wearing breathing apparatus to protect themselves from the heavy smoke and soon the situation was taken under control. The fire officers took the risk so that the adjacent buildings do not catch fire.

Illegal business was run by the godown owner  

As per fire officials, it was revealed that there was no fire license and health department license issued to the shop owner to run the business. For storing inflammable products in the godown, there should be a guideline followed by owner, but there was none. Even the shops inside the complex were illegally rented to tenants and in each of the rented places, LGP cylinders were found. It was fortunate that none of the LGP cylinders exploded. Regarding the matter, a police complaint is lodged against the owner and further investigation is in progress.

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