DNA Edit: Towering inferno - How many fires will it take for authorities to wake up?

The fire in a Mumbai highrise — the state capital has already witnessed three such incidents this month — has once again highlighted how little it takes to turn a city of dreams into the blaze of a nightmare.

In this case, out of the five deceased, four were senior citizens, with the oldest person being 82 years. It was impossible for them to run to safety when the fire spread rapidly in the 15-storey building after an  explosion in the AC unit of a flat.

The building has been recently redeveloped and yet it didn’t have functional fire-fighting equipment. Moreover, and this is true for many areas in Mumbai, the access lanes were so narrow and cluttered with illegal parking that the fire brigade had very little space to manoeuvre.

People on the upper floors were trapped. And now with the year-end and New Year celebrations round the corner, one shudders to think what awaits the Mumbaikar when s/he goes out to party. Fires have become a common phenomenon in Mumbai, which goes on to show how fire safety norms are observed in the breach.

In Mumbai, like in any Indian city, violating building norms and fire regulations is commonplace. City authorities and the state government mostly react to a mishap if only to control the damage in the wake of a public outcry. Following that, it’s back to square one. It seems that effective enforcement of the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006, is still a far cry, even when lives are lost frequently. This is yet another sign of Mumbai’s decay.