In view of a series of 10 fire incidents reported over the past fortnight shedding light on the ill-prepared state capital. Mumbai Fire Brigade chief fire officer (CFO) and deputy municipal commissioner of the Disaster Management Prabhat S Rahangdale says for a city characterised by byzantine lanes, densely populated neighbourhoods and a strip-like topography, modern and state-of-the-art firefighting apparatus/equipment are essential. Any firefighting agency needs to overcome just battling fire and improve its response time.
During an interaction with the editorial team of the Free Press Journal and Navshakti, Rahangdale gave more insights into Mumbai’s preparedness to tackle fires and what it takes to keep the city from burning down. Excerpts:
- The series of fire mishaps in the city highlight how highrises blatantly flout fire safety norms. What is the procedure that follows after giving Fire NOC? Are there regular inspections to ensure structures/buildings comply with fire safety norms after acquiring NOCs?
Before Kamala Mills mishap, we used issue advisory notes, stating “NOC subject to fire compliance”. The notes were treated as NOCs and building/structures operate based on that. Post Kamala Mills we have a proper Standard Operational Procedure (SoP) in place.
The application first goes to the BMC’s Medical Health Officer and simultaneously to the Assistant Engineer building after they verify the structure for any violations and clear it.
Then it comes to us. The compliance is verified by a physical inspection of the site. It is not possible to inspect each and every building in a city like Mumbai, but we are in the process to have software in place that will send reminder messages to owners of the buildings to submit fire compliance self-certification.
For new or under constructions, we give them a “Provisional fire compliance certificate”, these are subject to fire safety compliance. Once the building is fully constructed a joint inspection is conducted by BMC and fire officials.
This includes building proposal department, Medical Health Officer and fire officials. All the data pertaining to the inspection is fed in the software and an auto-generated date is given. And within 24 hours we have to give our remark on the inspection.
- The Kamala Mills fire exposed serious irregularities in the restaurant where the fire occurred. It came to light fire officers had issued permission to the restaurants barely a few days before the fire. What is being done to prevent such things from happening?
One major change that was brought in as per the instructions of the then Municipal Commissioner is that we do not issue NOCs any more. We directly issue compliance certificates now following a proper SoP. We now ask applicants for self-certification online that they comply with fire safety norms at the time of issuing permissions.
This makes the owner alert and aware. Once they self-certify, we check documents and carry out an inspection to verify the claims as per the self-certification. Proper scrutiny is done and following this, a physical inspection is assigned as per protocol. Only after that compliance certificates are issued online.
- This new process is for upcoming and newly-built establishments. What about old structures possessing old NOCs?
This is actually a problematic situation for us where thousands of structures are operating with NOC issued to the earlier before the new rules came into existence. Now the dynamics have changed, response time considering the time taken to the reach spot has changes. For example, many restaurants and eateries in the city operating with old NOCs have mezzanine floors with wooden floors and wooden staircases. However, as per the new guidelines, we cannot allow that.
The old commercial establishments that have an existing fire NOC also have to comply with it. They cannot get away. But if they apply for any kind of up-gradation like more number of LPG cylinders etc. they will be inspected as per new guidelines. New compliance is required and they cannot get an NOC.
Besides, under Section 4 of the Fire Safety Act, a fire officer can carry out inspections and any hazardous object can be removed with the help of police. In terms of residential buildings, if it does not have proper fire safety installations, we can prosecute the builder under Sections 6,7 and 8 of the Act.
- What is the city doing to upgrade the infrastructure? How do you ensure there are regular inspections?
Mumbai has 34 fire stations. In the new Development Plan, we have proposed another 24 to be made over the next six years. One was recently inaugurated at Kandarpada in Dahisar, we are planning to set up one more at Kandivali Thakur complex. Land acquisition for some others is done and work will start soon. We are trying to have mini fire stations in many places.
We have become very stringent as far as inspections are concerned. Since August 2018, we have inspected over 20000 commercial establishments and seized over 12,000 unauthorised cylinders.
- Series of fire mishap in the city has once again raised questions on the fire readiness of the city. What would say about that?
Yes, there have been incidents, but we are much better than five years back. And we have fought these incidents, rescued people. We are taking stringent action against the guilty. And if people start complying fire safety rules the number of incidents will go down further. In last five years, the number of fire incidents has gone below 5000.
- Mumbai Fire Brigade has faced a dearth of manpower for a long time? What about the capacity building of firemen?
We have added and are in the process of adding around 1,500 firemen and officers to our team soon. New recruits are given stringent training from the very first day. Our training is tougher than the commando training as our personnel has to navigate through heavy smoke and heated rooms with ropes and other heavy equipment. Existing firemen also have to take a refresher course. We have installed gyms in fire stations to encourage fitness.
- There are complaints of a poor network in highrises and certain areas. Isn’t your communication system outdated?
Traditionally, communication was done on a VHM system. But we are installing ‘repeaters’ to ensure there are no call drops. Besides, firemen will soon get ‘digital mobile radio’ (DMR) that uses multiple channels or frequencies for better communication.
People often complain about unable to reach the fire brigade phone lines and the delayed response time. When you are in distress one minute feels like one hour, We understand that. However, we have a tough time evading crowd. The response time is much better now with latest technology in place however one should also keep in mind congestion/ traffic etc.
- What were the challenges in dousing the fire on the plot near Aarey Colony?
The Aarey bush fire was a tough one, it could have worsened. Access via roads was a challenge and water was not readily available. We had to adapt to using a ‘fire break’. We used beaters to douse the fire. Positively we got huge help from the locals from the area. we managed to douse it off in three hours.
- What is Mumbai Fire Brigade doing to create public awareness on fire safety and fire compliance?
This is one area that we have added to our priority list. We are laying so much emphasis on awareness drives and training. We have trained 7,000 volunteers in fire safety. We will be soon starting another drive. But it is not possible to inspect each and every building in Mumbai. It is not done in any developed country either.
As per the Fire Act, it is the owner’s responsibility as well. It has to be a two-way process. However, we have increased the filing of police complaints as per the Fire Act. This was not the rule in the past. Now, based on our complaints, the police have made several arrests too.
