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Five key buildings lack fire safety
The building that houses Apollo Hospital in Himayatnagar is not safe for patients, staff and visitors, going by the findings of the State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department.
Hyderabad: The building that houses Apollo Hospital in Himayatnagar is not safe for patients, staff and visitors, going by the findings of the State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department.
The Fire Services Department is the competent agency to give ‘No Objection Certificate’ to any premises as far as fire safety norms are concerned.
The department has initiated a drive to check fire safety provisions and equipment in buildings, along with random surprise inspections.
According to the Director-General of Fire Services, five out of the 20 buildings inspected during the first spell of December 2016 were found to be violating fire safety standards.
What is disturbing is that the building that houses Apollo Hospital in Himayatnagar has not taken any corrective measures to meet fire safety standards though a case was filed last month.
According to a senior official, the premises housing Apollo Hospital is in the name of Mohd. Shafi Osman. The premises were inspected earlier and found lacking in fire safety standards. Consequently, a case was filed (vide proceedings No. 2742/A2/2011, dated 23-11-2016).
Since the department has no powers to seal the building, legal action was initiated by filing a case and a charge- sheet was also filed against the owner and occupiers of the building. However, corrective measures were not taken by either of them even after a month, the official said.
This prompted the Fire Services Department to file a supplementary charge-sheet against the owners, occupiers of the building for continuing the offense as per Section 31 of the Telangana Fire Services Act 1999.
Another building that was found flouting norms houses the Oxford High School in Beeramguda. The inspecting officials discovered that open space had not been provided on all sides and an additional floor was constructed without permission. Besides, the fire fighting systems fixed in the building were found to be deficient.
Three other buildings that were found flouting the fire safety norms are located in Tolichowki, Serilingampally and Adilabad.
The Director General of Fire Services said that legal action would be initiated as per the provisions of Fire Safety Act against the owners and occupiers of the buildings where fire safety measures were not maintained for violating the conditions of the NOC issued by the department.
