An engineering design approach should be adopted to ensure a fire safe design for buildings. It would also be necessary for this purpose to associate qualified and trained fire protection engineers with the planning of buildings, so that adequate fire protection measures could be incorporated in the building design right from the beginning. This is the view expressed by fire officers in a workshop held at Police Headquarters on Thursday.
To enhance the skills of firemen in view of increasing high-rise buildings in the state, a workshop was held at Police Headquarters Dehradun on Thursday, said State Director General of Police BS Sidhu.
Sidhu said that since the inception of the state, the numbers of high rise buildings and commercial establishments like hotels have been increasing day by day. To enhance the skills of firemen and fire officers, two senior fire officers from Delhi- divisional officer SK Dua and assistant divisional officer Somveer Singh were invited in the workshop.
The chapter four of national building code is implemented in high rise buildings. It specifies the demarcation of fire zones, restrictions on construction of buildings in each fire zone, classification of buildings based on occupancy, types of building construction according to fire resistance of the structural and non-structural components and other restrictions and requirements necessary to minimise danger to life from fire, smoke, fumes or panic before the buildings can be evacuated, the experts said. The Code recognises that safety of life is more than a matter of means of exits, they said.
DIG JC Pant, Assistant IG, PHQ, Dr Sadanand Date, Chandan Singh Jeena, deputy director and Dehradun chief fire officer SK Sharma and fire officers of Haridwar, US Nagar, Nainital, Pauri, Tehri districts were present at the workshop.