Hyderabad, February 05: In the wake of the fire accident at Park Hospital at Somajiguda here a couple of days ago, the State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department held a meeting today and took some important decisions.
The meeting was convened by State Disaster Response and Fire Service Department director-general Aruna M Bahuguna. Surprisingly, the chief electrical inspector (CEI) of the State was not invited to the meeting. The CEI is responsible for certifying electrical wiring and his presence at the meeting is important as short-circuit was suspected to be the reason for the latest fire.
It was decided to inspect the existing buildings and to issue notices for the rectification of deficiencies in a stipulated time of 60 days. The report on the deficiencies in hospitals will be sent to the district medical and health officer and t h e commissioner o f GHMC. The DM&HO, in turn, will issue notices to hospitals to rectify the deficiencies and, in case of failure to do so, will initiate action.
The district collector and the district educational officer will take care of educational institutions and the GHMC commissioner and director-general of fire services will inspect hotels, lodges, bars and restaurants.
By another decision, occupancy certificate has been made mandatory for new mercantile buildings, hotels, multi-storeyed residential apartments and buildings of public congregation.
SHORT-CIRCUIT: Frequent fire accidents in high-rise buildings due to short-circuit of power has become a cause of concern for the safety of those living or stay in them.
Analysing the causes of such accidents, an official of APTransco said that the chief electrical inspector had a great role in this regard.
“The use of sub-standard and duplicate materials is very high in the electrical equipment sector when compared to other sectors. For each branded material there are tens of duplicates and the buyers show interest in them because of cheaper rates.
When there is to be a lot of load on the electrical equipment, it should be made mandatory to use branded materials so that accidents can be averted or minimised,’’ he said.
“In several instances buildings and their usages are quite different and are causing accidents. Generally, buildings are constructed without knowing who will occupy them. If the Park Hospital is taken as an example, the building, after construction, might have been converted to a hospital.
The owners of the hospital have installed heavy electrical equipment which uses high voltage to which the wiring did not withstand,’’ the official noted.
The chief electrical inspector of the State has to inspect buildings and give certification. That job has allegedly been entrusted to licensed electrical supervisors who do not bother about the quality of wiring or even about the safety of the building.
Another problem is that if a building is remodelled and used for a purpose other than that stated when it was certified, officials of the depar tment do not bother to do inspection of the new utilities once again.
–Agencies