JOIN USIt might not be as heart-wrenching as the Kollam temple fire in which over 100 people perished or as spectacular as the recent blaze at a biofuel plant near Visakhapatnam, but the fire at the National Museum of Natural History in Delhi again underscored the need for better preparedness for such disasters. Rare artefacts were lost in the museum fire, but the episode thankfully ended with no serious human casualty. This was partly because the fire broke out in the early hours of the morning when the place was shut. The cause is still not known, but initial reports don’t rule out the usual apathy towards fire safety. Delhi Fire Services personnel reported that the firefighting systems in the 6-storey building didn’t function when needed. And barring the auditorium used by the business chamber Ficci, which owns the complex, reports suggest that the museum premises did not have a valid ‘no objection’ certificate from the fire department.
For a government-occupied premises visited daily by members of the public, such lax implementation of rules is unacceptable. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar was quick to announce a fire audit of all museums nationwide run by his ministry. But he also needs to make sure that accountability is fixed for the apparent lapses at the Delhi museum itself.
Unfortunately, breaking fire rules is almost a norm across the country, and even tragedies like the Uphaar Cinema fire in Delhi as far back as in 1997 or the AMRI Hospital disaster in Kolkata in 2011 don’t seem to have shaken up the system. Rules are routinely flouted at the construction stage, no objection certificates are often not sought or simply allowed to lapse. The fire services across the country are grossly inadequate. Even the one in Delhi, among the better ones, is not in a great shape, going by reports on the draft findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). It is short-staffed by over 40%, and short of equipment, including vital skylifts to tackle blazes in high-rise buildings. The fire department is also frustrated by its failure to enforce compliance of rules. Last year, it revealed that 1 in 5 Delhi schools, most of them run by the government or the municipal corporations, did not have a current fire safety clearance certificate. After the Kolkata hospital fire, which killed about 100 people, fire officials warned that a similar disaster could take place in the national capital as well. About 30 major hospitals in the city were behind on their fire department clearances then. Sadly, this a familiar story across Indian cities.