Mumbai
Shortage of manpower to monitor fire safety equipment in buildings and the laxity over slapping notices on violators has left the fire brigade handicapped.
Updated : Mar 16, 2015, 06:25 PM IST
Shortage of manpower to monitor fire safety equipment in buildings and the laxity over slapping notices on violators has left the fire brigade handicapped.
Though the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006, made it mandatory for all residential and commercial buildings to strictly adhere to a series of fire safety norms, lack of manpower has left the authorities concerned helpless.
“If anyone fails to adhere to the fire safety norms, then the owner of the building is either penalised (penalty between Rs30,000 to Rs1 lakh) or could be slapped with a six-month imprisonment. The Act has empowered the fire brigade by giving it discretionary powers,” explained a senior fire department official.
Nearly, 80% of the city buildings do not have proper fire safety equipment. “We have decided to recruit 300 more firemen, but senior authorities have not approved the file yet,” said another fire officer, on the condition of anonymity.
There are 3.7 lakh buildings in city.
“It is very difficult to inspect each and every building personally. The owner of the building should check the fire safety equipment regularly. The expired equipment should be replaced immediately,” said joint municipal commissioner (fire) SS Shinde.
“Our focus was on malls and crowded locations. Now, we have decided to inspect all city hospitals. We will recruit more people as early as possible,” Shinde added.