Telangana Fire dept warns people storing hazardous materials, chemicals

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Service department warned people from storing hazardous materials and chemicals in residential areas.

The department issued an advisory following the accident in which nine people died and several others received burn injuries and suffered smoke inhalation-related problems.

According to the advisory, the citizens were requested to bring to the notice of the fire, police and GHMC officials if they come across any such unauthorised storage and usage of hazardous materials in residential areas. The building owners were advised to install firefighting measures as per the national building code applicable to the type of building and occupancies. They were also urged to periodically maintain firefighting systems and check them on a day-to-day basis. The larger business complexes or establishments should appoint fire safety officers just like security staff.

The staircases should not be locked and should never be used as dumping places for waste materials. The department further warned them to keep setbacks free so that the place could be used by fire vehicles in case of an emergency. Periodical practice of fire drills by the inmates and intimating 101 in case of emergency without fail were the other pieces of advice.