Editorial
Fire at Garden City
Another damning indictment on safety standards
The blaze at the Japan Garden City apartment building, the way it engulfed beyond source taking a toll of seven lives and the manner in which it was handled all make the tragedy look so preventable in hindsight. Actually, these have been a horrific eye-opener to the poor fire safety standards that are built into the high-rise apartment building complexes. Ranging from design deviation through lack of internal fire fighting arrangements including dearth or absence of fire extinguishers and water hydrants that never get supervised to non-compliance with fire drill and awareness requirements, you name it, the gaps in the chain are horrendous.
In the specific case of Garden City building, the explanations are at best confusing and at worst pathologically deceitful. The real estate builder who has to its credit 1500 fully constructed flats claimed that the building in question was equipped with fire extinguishers and hydrants fitted with hoses which could not draw water as electric connection was cut off for safety reasons. Was there an auto-active generator which could have proved useful? The answer is no. As for fire extinguishers, most appeared to be in no condition to work. This is not the first time that whatever remained by way internal fire fighting capacity went kaput. Besides, in the maintenance of security staff, the notion of fire fighters among them is missing; it is all dressed up for gate-keeping and saluting inhabitants and visitors in and out.
The fundamental question is two-some: first, it falls on Rajuk to ensure that there are necessary underpinnings of fire safety devices within high-rise buildings, subject to periodic checks on their adequacy in terms of number and efficacy. Secondly, the developers owe it to their clients to see that once taking possession of their apartment they are safe from the hazards of fire and other forms of accidents. They must have the internal mechanism to prevent fire that usually originates in a small source from spreading including carrying out periodic fire drills, awareness building exercises and serving instructions on do's and don'ts.
The Rajuk may already have sent out a team for appraisal on the ground. Legal action should be taken against those found responsible. But there is a pressing need in general for a survey to be conducted by a specially assigned taskforce to ascertain the safety status particularly of high-rise apartment buildings with follow up actions to improve things up to an acceptable level.
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