Fire safety norms violated at Galaxy hospital in Pune: probe

The probe into the Galaxy Hospital fire incident has revealed that the hospital had failed to comply with the fire safety norms prescribed by the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act. Besides, the hospital is functioning on a provisional no objection certificate (NOC) issued by the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) fire brigade. 

The fire broke out in the operation room of the hospital on Karve Road on Monday. A major tragedy was averted as the alert staffers shifted the patients to a safer location. According to the fire brigade officials, the fire broke out due to short circuit.

The inquiry has revealed that only fire extinguishers have been installed in the hospital instead of a full-fledged fire safety system. 

Prashant Ranpise, chief fire officer of Pune fire brigade, said, “The hospital had promised to comply with the safety norms and hence we had issued a provisional NOC to the hospital. Once the hospital complies with the safety norms, only then will we issue a final NOC.”

Dr Geetanjali Joshi, cancer surgeon at the hospital said that the hospital is yet to comply with the safety norms. “After getting a provisional NOC from the fire brigade, we had already started the work on fire safety measures. We are in a process to construct a water tank. Since there are many trees on the hospital premises, we had to take various permissions before starting the work of constructing the water tank.”

The rule

As per the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, a hospital building with the height of less than 15 metres must have fire extinguishers and hose pipe reel. Moreover, if the hospital has a basement, it should have sprinklers. Out of these safety measures, Galaxy hospital had installed only fire extinguishers.