By Abdulhafiz Lakhani. Ahmedabad
Fire department officers had begun to conduct fire-safety checks at hospitals, especially ones designated as COVID-19 facilities. They found that an eye-watering number of medical facilities failed these checks. In Ahmedabad alone, 1931 hospitals—including designated COVID-19 facilities like Shrey Hospital—did not have a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department. Unconfirmed reports say that even the Civil Hospital in Rajkot does not have a fire NOC. The Bhavnagar Corporation issued notice to seven COVID-19 designated private hospitals for not having adequate fire safety measures in place.
However, if past experience is anything to go by, this flurry of activity and crackdowns will soon cease, just as those that followed Surat’s Takshashila Arcade fire did.
Immediately after the Surat fire, which took place on May 24, 2019, and left 22 students dead, the state government ordered the closure of all coaching classes until fire safety inspections were conducted. The government also ordered a fire safety inspection of schools, colleges, coaching centres, hospitals, shopping malls and other commercial buildings.
Yet, it wasn’t long until these ripples died down and things went back to normal. Fire safety was soon back at its customary low position on the government’s priority list. This may be dismissed as merely an opinion.
However, the fact is, the state government only enacted Fire Prevention and Life Safety measures Act 2013 after the High Court of Gujarat ordered it to do so at the end of a 22-year-long judicial battle.
After no action on this front for six years, the state government set up the Fire Services Authority in May 2019. However, this body had no power, nor was it given a workforce or infrastructure for another nine months. In February 2020, the state government approved 672 personnel, 100 vehicles and announced that five regional offices—one each in Surat, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Rajkot and Gandhidham—had been approved. Till today, this body is run by its In-charge Director.
Surat Fire department has an approved strength of 1,001, including one post of Chief Fire Officer and Additional Chief Fire Officer. However, the entire department is run by In-charge Chief Fire Officer BK Pareek and a Deputy Chief Fire Officer.
The Vadodara fire department is also headed by an In-charge CFO, PG Brahmbhatt, who told First India that the department runs on 45% of its allotted manpower, fire stations and equipment.
Thus, it becomes evident that the government—both at the state and local level—does not prioritize fire safety, raising questions on how long the authorities’ current interest in safety protocols at hospitals can be sustained.
In addition, this attitude also moves the onus of maintaining fire safety to the general public. If people are concerned about their safety, they need to build pressure on local authorities and the state government to prioritize fire departments, ensuring them adequate staff as well as funding, which reached them in a timely manner.
“The hospital where the incident took place didn’t have a fire safety certificate. Even, the equipment was out of date. When the fire team reached the spot, the ICU was already gutted. The hospital didn’t review their fire safety certificate, which is a no-objection certificate (NOC),” said a senior officer of the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services.
Following the incident, leader of the opposition in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Dinesh Sharma said, “The officers are taking bribes from the hospitals to declare them COVID-19 designated facilities. The system only wakes up when such type of tragedy occurs. Things will be normal again for them in a few days and this episode will be erased from their minds.”
Dariyapur MLA Gyasuddin Shaikh lay the blame squarely with the top brass. He said: “This incident is very serious and the result of criminal negligence by the hospitals and the municipal corporation. The priority is to investigate the matter. Didn’t the officers check things like BU permission, staff, medical equipment, and fire safety when they permitted the hospital to begin operations? I strongly believe that Rajiv Gupta, Mukesh Kumar, and mayor Bijal Patel are all responsible for this incident.”
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad,Gujarat,India based website)
