Around two-and-a-half years ago, the BMC heritage committee had asked the fire department to carry out a fire audit of all heritage buildings, particularly those in public use. The fire department, however, had cited a manpower crunch and had given a miss to most heritage structures, including the 150-year-old Metro Plaza in Colaba where a fire on Thursday gutted two floors. The Metro Plaza falls in the Fort heritage precinct. Though it’s not a graded or a listed structure, the precinct is listed.
V. Ranganathan, former chairman, Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee who had asked for the fire audits, said, “Fire audit has not been done in most heritage buildings. We had directed that the audit for public buildings such as the Bombay High Court be done on priority as a large number of people congregate in these places.”
He said these buildings contain a lot of combustible material and an audit was necessary, but the fire department had said it didn’t have the staff needed for auditing heritage structures with the exception of ones like the Bombay High Court.
These old buildings with loose wires and the load of present-day electricity consumption are prone to fires, Mr. Ranganathan said. “They were constructed at a time when electricity consumption was low. Now you have air conditioners working out of these structures,” he added. He said the audit checks on fire safety measures and includes suggestions on how they can be improved without compromising the building’s heritage.
Experts recall regular follow-ups by Mr. Ranganathan with the fire department. “He did not get any response from the fire brigade or the municipal corporation,” Pankaj Joshi, executive director, Urban Design Research Institute, said. He added that a fire audit of all heritage buildings is needed because when a heritage building burns down, an important part of a city’s cultural landscape ends with it.
Also, the streetscape of the Colaba Causeway is a charming part of the city, said conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah. She said most of these buildings are over 100 years old and there is heavy usage of wood in beams, rafters and staircases. “One of the major causes of fire is electrical short circuits because electrical upgradation has not happened for many years,” she said. Ms. Lambah cited the GPO fire in the late ’90s and a fire at the BMC’s corporation hall in 2000, both of which were caused by short circuits. Apart from fire clearances, these buildings also need regular fire drills, she said.
