Alarm bells for Delhi fire service officials

Reports that several hospitals in the national Capital, including the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Lok Nayak and Guru Tegh Bahadur, are functioning without the mandatory fire safety certificate seems to have woken up the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) from a deep sleep.

Reports that several hospitals in the national Capital, including the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Lok Nayak and Guru Tegh Bahadur, are functioning without the mandatory fire safety certificate seems to have woken up the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) from a deep sleep.

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Taking cognisance of the reports and a fire tragedy at a Kolkata hospital that claimed 90 lives, the city’s fire department has decided to conduct a fresh survey of the hospitals.

A high-level meeting was held at DFS headquarters on Saturday. It has been decided that the fire agency would take strict action against the hospitals found to be flouting safety norms, despite being given sufficient time to rectify the shortcomings.

The meeting was called by DFS director AK Sharma.

A senior fire official said the meeting, which lasted for about an hour, was organised to discuss the actions needed to be taken to make the city’s hospitals and nursing homes well-equipped to fight fire tragedies.

Sharma said, “Taking cognisance of Kolkata’s fire tragedy, we have instructed our officials to carry out fresh inspection pof hospitals, under their jurisdiction.”

“The officials have been asked to inspect if the hospitals have the requisite fire safety arrangements. The official must immediately inform the owner/ managing authority of the hospital concerned in case of a shortcoming. Our mission is to ensure that all hospitals in Delhi function with proper fire safety arrangements and the mandatory NOC,” he said, adding that the inspection work will be carried out in 10 days.

Asked what action DFS would take against the hospital that violates safety norms, a senior official said, “Action will be taken, if they do not rectify the shortcomings before the deadline. We’ll write to the authorities regarding cancellation of license of defaulters.”