The financial capital has witnessed more than 26000 fire incidents in the past five years, of which about 75% or 20009 have been caused by short circuits or electrical failure, revealed data shared by the Mumbai Fire Brigade. With a mission to prevent such mishaps in the city, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has decided to make electrical audits of every housing society and commercial structure every five years a must.
Considering the spate of fires caused by short circuits, the fire brigade is also planning to intensify its awareness campaign in the city.
As per the data shared by the Mumbai Fire Brigade out of the total 26855 fire incidents reported in the last 5 years, 20009 have been caused due to an electrical failure or short circuit, which makes it 74.50%.
While speaking to the Free Press Journal, Chief Fire Officer (CFO) of Mumbai Fire Brigade Hemant Parab, said, "Electrical audits are very important because in most cases, electrical short-circuit or an electrical failure is the root cause of fire incidents. If a proper and regular electrical audit is conducted then a large number of fire incidents can be prevented and we can have control over it.”
Parab further said: “We had a meeting with the chief electrical auditor, and we will be coming up with a plan. The chartered electrical engineers will be working on this and they will be publishing a notification according to which they will be entitled to conduct electrical audits, they will also be issuing an order on how it will be done."
“According to the Maharashtra Fire Prevention & Life Safety Measure Act, we conduct fire audits every 6 months but ideally the electrical audit should also be done after every 5 years. Those who will conduct the electrical audit will submit their report which will help in carrying out regular checks. Otherwise, usually, electrical fitting is done and no one checks it until something goes wrong, therefore there will be audits and inspections every five years. Such decisions are under planning and will begin after the chief electrical auditor gives a green signal because they will be taking up this responsibility,” added Parab.
