Mumbai: After conducting a thorough inspection of buildings, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has found that 45.8% of them are violating fire safety rules, despite several fire-related incidents being reported in the city. According to the data from the fire brigade, as many as 329 buildings were inspected between November 2021 and April 2022, out of which, 151 were issued notices for flouting fire safety rules.
A majority of these buildings are residential high-rises, and only a few are commercial establishments. The inspections are part of the fire brigade’s routine ongoing procedure.
Hemant Parab, chief fire officer of the Mumbai Fire Brigade said, “The most common violation we found is non-functional firefighting system, defunct parts of the system such as sprinklers or smoke detectors not working. In other instances, we found that the refuge area was encroached, terrace as locked, and the staircase and common passageways were encroached with household items and furniture.”
After the fire at Tardeo’s Sachinam Heights in January this year, an inquiry report recommended the fire brigade to check if all 1443 high-rise buildings located in the island city have submitted the latest form-B- a certificate to report maintenance of fire prevention and safety measures – and send notices to those buildings that have not done their fire audit.
Parab said, “The owners or occupiers of the buildings do not need to visit the fire brigade. The procedure of submitting form B is online. We are parsing through buildings that have not submitted the latest form B. Meanwhile, outlet surprise inspections are an ongoing routine process.”
In the latest incident, On May 9, a fire was reported on the 14th floor of 21-storey Jivesh Terrace at Bandstand in Bandra, and the firefighting system of the building was not operational. A notice is being issued to Jivesh Terrace for non-operational firefighting system.