The Carlton Towers tragedy has thrown up questions on why scientific methods available to deal with emergencies were not adopted to avoid the nine deaths that occurred when a suspected short circuit in the second floor of the building filled the upper floors with thick, billowing smoke on February 23.
A recent study by the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (C-STEP) in Bangalore found that several malls in the city were Carlton Towers waiting to happen; in most cases the exit doors were locked.
“A simple assessment made it clear that a small fire could lead to major casualties,” says Eswaran Subrahmanian, distinguished research fellow, C-STEP, who directs a project on next-generation infrastructure, including emergency and disaster management systems combining serious games and simulation. Other buildings in the city may also suffer similar damages as Carlton Towers, he says.
Subrahmanian says Bangalore’s sister city, San Francisco, is embarking on a project to create a database of all major buildings in the city, through a co-operative council with representation from all walks of society, for use in emergency and disaster management.“As an IT city, it is time we used technology wisely to enhance the safety of citizens of this city.”
Subrahmanian is confident that to be prepared to effectively manage emergencies, like the Carlton Towers tragedy, “many information technology aids can be created and used for monitoring and simulation of events, social behaviour, training by using serious games and mock scenarios, managing logistics and inventory of assets integrated with latest communication technology, including cell phones, to educate, communicate, and to manage the crowds and traffic”. None of this was done on that fateful day.
The scientist says that a fundamental issue in emergency and disaster management is that “we must have the assets required, located at the right place for them to be available, and have trained people, not some dusty procedures in a bureaucrat’s office”.
Apart from the simulated exercises using IT tools, Subrahmanian says, “We need a command-and-control structure that can be created on demand to be able to mobilise people and resources, along with citizen volunteers, to take control of the situation immediately to facilitate other services.”
None of these facilities is in place, he says. “Just a few practice-drills are done, and the buildings are not inspected for safety violations,” he says. “No one is really responsible, and the community is not able to mobilise itself. This often becomes an obstacle in itself.”
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