In the wake of deaths of 22 students at a coching institute blaze in Surat on Friday, Delhi Home Minister Satyender Jain on Monday issued directions to the chief of Delhi Fire Services (DFS) to “take strict action as per the fire safety standards and guidelines to prevent recurrence of such accidents” in the national Capital.
The Director (Fire Services) has been asked to immediately inspect and shut and seal coaching centres operating in highrise buildings above the fourth floor. The Delhi Government further issued notice to all the civic authorities to enforce the ‘Unified Building Bylaws’ in coaching centres.
“In the first phase, all coaching centres operating in high-rise buildings (more than four floors excluding the stilt floor) shall be inspected by the Director (Fire Service),” the order read.
As per the law, kitchen/cooking and storage of inflammable material are not allowed on rooftops. Multi-storey buildings, hotels and commercial buildings will lose No Objection Certificate (NOC) for violation of norms.
Further, in the buildings, carbon monoxide detector and alarm should be installed in all the private and commercial buildings.
It may be noted that the similar incident was witnessed earlier this year in February in Karol Bagh in which 17 people died while 35 people were injured after a massive fire broke out at a hotel. Some of the victims were charred to death and others were asphyxiated by the poisonous fumes. A woman and a child jumped from the fourth floor to save themselves from the blaze but they died on the spot.