Fire services on alert as summer hots up

Hyderabad: With the temperatures in the hotting up, fire accidents are increasingly being reported from across the city. Fire services officials cautioned that crowded places like bars and pubs managements should take more precautions as any fire breakout can have catastrophic effect. Among the calls about fire accidents, 3 out of every 5 calls are from pubs, says officials at the state disaster response and fire service department of Telangana.

"Fire accident is one of the major disasters where a loss of life and property reported on a large-scale. Recognising the need to prevent the disasters or any untoward incidents, the Government of Telangana formed Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) to tackle the disasters to minimise loss of property and life. EVDM staff work in three phases.

Inspections were carried out at around 700 pubs to check if adequate fire safety precautions are taken. 650 bars and pubs applied for certificates and 300 were recognised as having inappropriate facilities. We have sent a short fall notice to settle the things within a month span," said Vishwajit Kampati, Director, EVDM.

"There are seven serious fire calls so far this year and a total of 494 calls were received in Hyderabad district. Though the number of cases registered observed is higher than that for the past two years, the number of lives lost is comparatively lower. Fire department is planning a drill every Friday in different locations to create awareness on what to do during a blaze and how to rescue people.

This might be a reason for the numerous fire calls as many fire calls are related to minor incidents," said Srinivas, Regional Fire Officer, Telangana State Disaster Response & Fire Services. As per the Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management reports, hospitals and schools are in the next list of attention for raids.