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Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officials said on Friday that a safety audit of 130 training centers in six districts of the city had shown “inconsistencies” in their fire safety mechanism.
The Delhi High Court had ordered the audit following a fire in a building housing three training centers and several business offices in Mukherjee Nagar last week.
According to senior fire officials, there are about 130 training centers in areas including
Southern Extension, Laxmi Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Janakpuri, Karol Bagh and Kalu Sarai have been examined so far. “A team of five members has been set up from the fire department and the inspection is being conducted as per the HC orders… Some of the criteria according to which the inspection is conducted are the availability of entry and exit points in the building and basic firefighting equipment such as a fire extinguisher, sprinklers, among others,” the official said. “.
At first glance, they found “inconsistencies” in the safety mechanism in these buildings, a senior fire official said. “In the coming days, we will search more training places and prepare a report on violations,” he said.
Regarding some of the irregularities found so far, the official explained, “Some of the training centers that were inspected had only one entrance and exit… Some were cramped and not well lit. In a few of them, there were no emergency exits. It was also found Some of them have alarms, sensors and water tanks for firefighting which are not available. It was also found that the classrooms have more students than their area.”
According to estimates, the city currently has at least 2,000 training centers. DFS President Atul Garg said, “We have asked the centers to inform us of their fire safety plan so that we can compile data on their exact figures.”
The DFS chief added, “On the surface, no training center in the city has all the required fire safety measures. We will check the specifications of every building examined so far, such as size and number of floors, to find out if they have passed the fire safety test or not.” “.
According to officials, while educational institutions such as schools and colleges require an NOC, no such rule applies to training centres. Garg said there are several criteria that determine whether a building requires an NOC to operate – one of which is if the building is over 15 meters in height.
Apart from the audit report, DFS is also likely to provide fire safety guidelines for training centres. Garg said that as part of the fire safety campaign in the training centers, all students and parents are required to report any violation to the fire department, after which the officials will conduct an inspection and take necessary action.
“Students and parents are asked to share photos and addresses of the fire department training centre,” Garg added.
On 15 June, a fire broke out in the three-storey building in Mukherjee Nagar – caused by a short circuit in the electrical panel – forcing UPSC Training Center students to descend using ropes and wires. According to the Delhi Police, 61 students, as well as a few business office employees, sustained burn injuries.
Police arrested two people, the CEO and the owner of two training centres, and said they had no NOC or permits to run the center – a charge confirmed by DFS.
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