Taking cue from the tragedy that befell in Mumbai restaurants on Thursday midnight, the Delhi Police on Sunday issued instructions to owners of the restaurants and pubs across the national Capital to desist from “fire acrobatics” without permission. Fire acrobatics was found to be the reason behind the massive fire at a Mumbai rooftop pub that claimed 14 lives.
Delhi Police top brass have requisitioned services for Delhi Fire Services (DFS) as a preventive measure. “Fire engines will be on patrolling duty around popular party hubs to ensure that there is no delay in helping people in case of an untoward incident”, said Dependra Pathak, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) and the Chief Spokesperson of Delhi Police.
“Our focus is to prevent unauthorised amusement activities in restaurants and pubs that require the usage of fire,” “Generally people don’t take permission for such kinds of acrobatics or amusement activities. But even they require permission,” Pathak said.
Pathak said that the licensing department of the Delhi Police has written to the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) to carry out surprise checks to see that all fire safety norms are in place.
If any violation is found, the police might take action to suspend or cancel the licence of the place violating the norms, the letter said.
G C Mishra, director, DFS, said that their personnel are conducting surprise checks at restaurants and have got the fire exits cleared.
“On Saturday, we inspected the restaurants and if we found that furniture and other items were kept around the fire exits, we got them cleared. Our personnel will be on the road in the vehicles and will be patrolling the areas to ensure that help reaches on time,” he said. The fire chief said around that 25 fire tenders will be patrolling various popular hubs in the city.
Apart from ensuring that fire safety measures are in place, the Delhi Police is also making sure that drunken revelers do not create a nuisance in the city.
“There are total points 433 points that have been identified for traffic checking. Out of the 433 points, 125 will have drunken driving checking with personnel carrying alcometers,” said Pathak. He said that the traffic police personnel will be accompanied by the Police Control Room staff. The safety measures come after last week 14 people lost their lives in a fire at a rooftop pub in lower Parel area in Mumbai that erupted during a birthday bash.