Fire services in the State are expected to undergo modernisation under the five-year KSAFE (Karnataka Safe) project, which will include an upgrade and extension in services.
M.N. Reddi, DGP, Fire and Emergency Services, said emphasis will be on quality, skill upgradation and capacity building of fire services in the State over five years.
“We are looking at extension of services to hoblis to be converted as talukas, as well as to special zones, such as highways, through fire sub-stations and outposts in urban areas. The project will include miniaturisation of fire safety equipment, such as water way systems,” he said.
He said the emphasis will be on prevention in critical occupancies and high rises, an aspect that figured in this year’s State budget.
Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, in his Budget speech, said, “The number of skyscrapers is continuously increasing in Bengaluru. It is therefore essential to increase the capacity of the fire fighting system in order to prevent fire accidents in high-rise buildings. In this direction, it is proposed to procure Aerial Ladder Platform Vehicle, which can reach up to a height of 90 metres.”
Grey areas
With a slew of fire accidents being reported across the country, including in Bengaluru, has the city made progress since the Carlton Towers tragedy?
“As far as the legally authorised high-rises are concerned, Bengaluru’s record is good in terms of compliance. But there are also a large number of high-rises, which are not authorised as high-rises, which is a grey area. Also areas of concern are critical occupancy buildings, such as schools, auditoriums and hospitals,” he said.
‘Systemic changes’
Uday Vijayan from Beyond Carlton, which stemmed from the fire tragedy of February 23, 2010, said systemic changes are ‘slowly beginning to take place’.
“Our PIL in 2011 changed State laws wherein it was made mandatory to get an NOC from the fire department every two years. This has brought pressure on the department as well as residents of buildings, and made them aware of fire safety issues,” he said.
Last year, a five-year fire safety blueprint for Bengaluru — said to be the first for a city in the country — was brought out in consultation with the Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services Department.
The blueprint has drawn a five-year roadmap from 2018 to 2022, and its key recommendations include introducing a retrofit policy for older buildings, linking property tax payment and fire No Objection Certificates, introducing a Public Private Partnership policy for private agencies to partner for new fire stations and monitoring, making burns wards compulsory in well-equipped hospitals, and developing protocols for inter-agency coordination.
“Sadly, fires are happening too soon. We hope somewhere there will be a change. It is a long journey as awareness is low and apathy high. Many people don’t believe they can die in a fire accident. We have, however, reached a point where we are becoming partners with the department, and meaningfully bringing advocacy and legislative intervention. We are also in the KSAFE 2 committee,” he said.
Honour for delivery boy
Saturday will mark the ninth anniversary of the Carlton Towers fire tragedy, which left nine dead and 60 injured.
Beyond Carlton, which has announced the launch of a fire-risk assessment initiative for apartments in the city, will, like every year, be organising a memorial lecture on ‘Our Cities on Fire’ by A Ravindra, former Chief Secretary, government of Karnataka.
On the occasion, Beyond Carlton will also honour 20-year-old Siddrameshwar Humanabade, a delivery boy who rushed to the site of a hospital fire in Marol in Mumbai and managed to save 10 people on December 18, 2018, a release said.
