Explained | What has led to a spate of hospital fires, and why aren’t governments strictly following laws?

The story to date: Fires happen in lots of public buildings in India yearly, killing a giant quantity of folks and injuring many. Over the previous yr, there have been lethal fires in hospital buildings, together with these treating COVID-19 sufferers. Recent infernos in hospitals at Bharuch in Gujarat, Virar, a suburb of Mumbai, and Mumbra close to Thane, killed at the least 37 folks. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) says 330 folks died in industrial constructing fires in 2019, whereas fatalities for residential or dwelling buildings have been a lot greater at 6,329. Electrical faults are cited because the main trigger of fires however State governments are extensively criticised for being lax with constructing security legal guidelines and for failing to equip public buildings with trendy expertise. Hospital ICUs (intensive care items) are a nice hearth danger as a result of they’re oxygen-suffused, and want to meet excessive requirements.

What hearth security compliance is predicted in public buildings, together with hospitals?

At the centre of all standard-setting is the National Building Code of India. Part 4 of the Code offers with Fire and Life Safety. The doc supplies specs and tips for design and supplies that cut back the menace of harmful fires. Under the Code, all present and new buildings are labeled by nature of use, reminiscent of residential, instructional, institutional, meeting (like cinemas and auditoria), enterprise, mercantile, industrial, storage and hazardous.

Hospitals come underneath the institutional class. The Union Home Ministry’s Directorate-General for Fire Services, Civil Defence & Home Guards says on its web site that the National Building Code (NBC), revealed by the Bureau of Indian Standards, is a “recommendatory document”, and States have been requested to incorporate it into their native constructing bylaws, making the suggestions a “mandatory requirement”. Evidently, hearth security guidelines exist in each State, however the provisions of the Code are ignored in observe, and even obligatory certifications don’t mirror compliance.

Queries on hospital fires prompted the Centre to announce in Parliament on March 23 this yr that a Fire Safety Committee conducts periodical audits on hearth set up, heating, air flow and air-conditioning, electrical sub-stations and different electrical tools within the Union authorities’s hospitals. The Health Ministry mentioned it had circulated strict tips in September 2020 stipulating third-party accreditation for hearth security and that a hearth response plan ought to be in place.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has additionally stipulated necessities for hearth security in public buildings, together with hospitals, which incorporate components of the NBC, apart from design tips on sustaining minimal open security area, protected exit mechanisms, devoted staircases, and essential drills to perform evacuations.

What does the Code specify?

At the macro stage, the NBC recommends the placement of buildings by sort of use in particular zones to make sure that industrial and hazardous constructions don’t coexist with residential, institutional, workplace and enterprise buildings. It specifies, amongst different issues, the technical necessities for particular buildings, excessive rises, instructional and institutional buildings greater than 9 metres, and these with an space of over 300 sq. metres.

Next, the Code drills down into the specifics of hearth resistance based mostly on the supplies used — exterior partitions, inside bearing partitions, ground, roof, hearth test doorways, hearth enclosure exits, and so on. Technologies to sound alerts in case of a hearth and additionally to struggle it are anticipated to be integrated into buildings. Examples given within the Code are automated hearth detection and alarm system, down-comer pipelines related to a roof tank, dry riser pipelines that fire-fighters can use to douse higher flooring, automated sprinklers and water sprays, fireman’s elevate, hearth limitations, escape routes, markings, and so on. Incorporating these into a correct design and making certain that licensed fire-resistant supplies are used within the building can avert lethal fires, giving occupants enough time to exit safely.

However, the NBC additionally says that for numerous sorts of buildings, “in case of practical difficulty or to avoid unnecessary hardship, without sacrificing reasonable safety, local head, fire services may consider exemptions from the Code”.

Do State governments comply with the Code?

Maharashtra, which has been hit by a sequence of fires, has a Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act since 2008. Section 3 of the Act makes the provisions of the NBC obligatory and Schedule I of the State’s legislation is borrowed from the Code.

However, stories within the wake of current hearth accidents point out that the authorities have been unable to sustain with inspection necessities for 1000’s of buildings. A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the interval 2010 to 2015 famous that in Maharashtra, after a “joint physical inspection by audit of 53 government buildings/hospitals/educational institutions/commercial establishments in eight selected MCs [municipal corporations] revealed that only fire extinguishers were installed in 11 of 53 buildings and the remaining 42 buildings were not equipped with any of the fire-fighting installations”. Fire division professionals had earlier demanded third-party audits by licensed professionals.

In Kerala, acquiring an NOC [no-objection certificate] from the fireplace division, given in kind H-3 for hospitals which are between 15 metres and 24 metres excessive, requires furnishing exhaustive data on design and infrastructure. The guidelines prescribe firefighting tools and installations that meet “Indian Standards”, however don’t comprise a direct reference to the NBC.

Tamil Nadu’s kind for a hearth licence, required underneath the Fire Service Act learn with municipal legislation, is even broader, and no reference is discovered for compliance with the Code.

What is the longer term course?

In December final yr, the Supreme Court directed all States to perform hearth security audits of devoted COVID-19 hospitals. It has develop into evident that State forces lack the manpower to examine and guarantee compliance with security codes, together with the NBC, the place it’s obligatory. One possibility is to make heavy hearth legal responsibility insurance coverage obligatory for all public buildings, which might provide safety to occupants and guests and result in exterior inspection of security.