The inadequacies of the capital city in enabling swift firefighting almost dealt a huge blow to the efforts of the Fire and Rescue Services to douse the fire at the Chala market here on Friday.
If the narrow and congested roads towards the city’s commercial hub proved to be the first hurdle in the way of the fire tenders that rushed to the spot, it was the haphazard layout of the market, with closely packed rows of shops, many of them with a lot of wood in their structures, which made the already difficult battle tougher.
Add to this the near total lack of fire safety measures in the market that is crowded from dawn to dusk, and the absence of casualties in the fire could well be a miracle.
P. Chandrasekharan, Commandant General, Fire & Rescue Services, said there “were a lot of things to be discussed across the table and to be done over the coming days.”
The state of electrical connections, the stocking of inflammable materials, the manner in which fire hydrants in several spots in the city were never relocated after road widening — all would have to be thought over, he said.
The entire exercise saw nearly 50 fire engines from across the district, apart from the neighbouring Kollam district, being summoned, while water tankers from the Kerala Water Authority too were pressed into service to ensure adequate supply of water, Joe Kuruvilla, Director (Administration), Fire and Rescue Services, said. A Rosenbauer Panther airport fire truck from the international airport here too was at hand for the firefighting.
