Hyderabad, September 05: Officials of the Fire Prevention Wing of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation on Saturday said that they have conducted inspection of 490 Schools in GHMC, Ranga Reddy District area and 1401 Schools in GHMC Hyderabad District area from June 2010 till September.
The inspections over the fire safety measures have come in the backdrop of the Kumbokonam school tragedy and subsequent instructions from Government.
The GHMC officials revealed that during the inspections it was noticed that a majority of schools lack basic fire safety measures like fire extinguishers, electrical safety, hose reel in multistoried school buildings with heights of above six metres, over head water tank, booster pump, automatic sprinkler system in the cellar if the cellar area is more than 200 M2.
It was also observed that in more than 80 per cent of the schools only single staircase is provided and this may result in stampede and injuries or casualties in case of emergency evacuation during fire and other emergencies.
In view of these deficiencies review meetings with the school Managements were held on July 28 for Central Zone and August 19 for North, East, South, West of GHMC and the management were requested to provide the Fire Safety Measures at the earliest and Obtain No Objection Certificate from GHMC, Hyderabad.
The school managements have requested Time upto June 2011. But in view of ensuring Life and Fire Safety of school children at the earliest the Commissioner, GHMC has told the schools to construct an additional RCC/MS Staircase of minimum 01.25 metres width if there is only single staircase and students per floor are more than 75 Nos and also ensure that electrical and other required fitting to ensure electrical safety are put in place before October 31, 2010.
The GHMC also directed that at least four fire extinguishers of five kg capacity are provided in each floor before September 30, 2010.
For building with ground and first floor, a hose reel has to be installed in each floor before December 31, 2010.
Over Head Terrace Tank of 5,000 Ltrs for schools with ground and 1st Floor and a 10,000 litre water tank for ground plus two floors are to be installed before March 31 next year.
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