KTR: Fire Safety Audit A Must, 25 lakh commercial buildings in Hyd

Hyderabad: A safety audit will be conducted on major commercial buildings, hospitals, schools, and high-rise apartments in all major cities of the state, including Hyderabad. The massive fire at Deccan Cooperation at Radha Arcade's five-storeyed building on Ministers road, in Nallagutta is the reason for this step.

The fire fighters had a tough time and it took about 10 hours to douse the fire. Recently, bones were also found in the building and they have been sent for examination in the forensics department.

Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia to families

A high-level review meeting was held by IT and Urban Development department and working president of Bharat Rashtra Samiti K T Rama Rao along with Chief Secretary Santhi Kumar, Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav, Home Minister Mahamood Ali, DGP Anjani Kumar, GHMC Commissioner Lokesh Kumar, Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand, Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra, Rachakonda Commissioner D.S. Chauhan, Hyderabad Collector Amoy Kumar, and officials of concerned departments at the Secretariat on Wednesday. During the meeting, KTR announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the families who died during the fire accident.

25 lakh commercial establishments

During the review meeting, KTR discussed the measures to be taken against the buildings running without NOC. "Fire safety audits should be conducted to all commercial establishments, hospitals, schools, petrol stations, and gas warehouses. Safety of the people of a growing city like Hyderabad is very important", said KTR. KTR asked the officials to send proposals to amend the fire safety laws amended in 1999.

Along with the high-rise apartments, the old town's narrow streets must be inspected. Minister KTR said that the government is ready to provide modern vehicles and fire extinguishers to the fire department.

At the meeting, Minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav said, "There are about 25 lakh business and commercial complexes in Hyderabad city. Guidelines should be issued to the owners of all these buildings, to manage their safety guidelines properly".

Owners negligence

FIR filed by the Ramgopalpet police station limits after the fire accident in Deccan Mall says that the fire accident occurred due to the negligence of building owners.

Ramgopalpeta police took into custody the building owners Mohammed Owais, and M.A Raheem, for not taking proper safety measures. The building has no setbacks for emergency exits in case of any emergency. Police identified that neighboring houses also caught fire due to the fire accident and got damaged.

A JNTU expert committee comprising Ramana Rao, Director of NIIT, Warangal, who inspected the area opined that the building may collapse anytime. The building is in dilapidated condition, and the slab of the building has developed cracks. Some of its portions have caved in. He suggested deploying force and preventing trespassing. During the rescue operations, fire personnel rescued four of those who were trapped in the building. However, three of them Waseem, Junaid, and Zaheer are missing.

On January 23, drone footage recorded the remains of a man from the gutted structure of the Deccan mall building. A joint team comprising Collector Hyderabad and Revenue officials, GHMC officials, clues team, and Fire and Police officials re-inspected the scene and found bones on the first floor. The bones were collected with the help of the Sri Venkanna Clues team expert and the team and fire department and were sent to Gandhi hospital for preservation and conducting the PME to know the exact cause of death.