LESSONS FROM
A FIRE TRAGEDY
- Shri P. N. Rai, Member, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority
Yet another fire tragedy in our urban areas - this time at Anaj Mandi, Delhi - has sparked widespread outrage among the general public. The fire that occurred in the early hours of December 8, 2019 killed more than 40 people. It has again highlighted the inadequacy of our emergency response system, in this case the fire fighting system. Combined with this, lack of compliance with fire safety codes, community awareness on even basic preparedness measures, and lack of even basic urban planning in large parts of our cities has created a trend of increased fire risk. However, trend is not destiny. With a determined and concerted effort, the trend can not only be arrested but reversed too. However, this will require simultaneous work on long-term measures (increasing compliance of fire safety codes in buildings and settlements); medium-term measures (improving the capacity of fire services); and short-term measures (improving the preparednes of our fire fighters and communities).
1.Comments will be moderated by NDMA'seditorial team. 2.Comments that are abusive, personal, incendiary or irrelevant cannot be published. 3.Please write complete sentences. Do not type comments in all capital letters, or in all lower case letters, or using abbreviated text. (example: u cannot substitute for you, d is not 'the', n is not 'and'). 4.We may remove hyperlinks within comments. 5.Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name, to avoid rejection.
- Shri P. N. Rai, Member, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority
Yet another fire tragedy in our urban areas - this time at Anaj Mandi, Delhi - has sparked widespread outrage among the general public. The fire that occurred in the early hours of December 8, 2019 killed more than 40 people. It has again highlighted the inadequacy of our emergency response system, in this case the fire fighting system. Combined with this, lack of compliance with fire safety codes, community awareness on even basic preparedness measures, and lack of even basic urban planning in large parts of our cities has created a trend of increased fire risk. However, trend is not destiny. With a determined and concerted effort, the trend can not only be arrested but reversed too. However, this will require simultaneous work on long-term measures (increasing compliance of fire safety codes in buildings and settlements); medium-term measures (improving the capacity of fire services); and short-term measures (improving the preparednes of our fire fighters and communities).
This article aims to address some of these basic issues
by drawing lessons from the Anaj Mandi fire. It
appears that even with existing resources, the
response could have been much better. This article
highlights five key lessons:
First, inability to assess the extent of the fire and its
impact timely compounded the impact. It is clear that
it took a long time for the responders to have even a
rough measure of the number of people likely to be
trapped and requiring medical attention. In the
absence of a professional medical response in the
initial hours, some of the injured had to be sent to
hospitals in auto rickshaws and Police Control Room
(PCR) vans.
Second, lack of prior familairity with the area and
prior engagement with the communities was a
principal reason for the delay in estimating the
number of people trapped in the building. It is not clear whether the knowledge of the local police and
PCR van personnel and local informants was
utilised to have an as-best-as-possible assessment
of the situation. Correcting this requires two
principal actions. The fire services need to do a
reconnaissance of vulnerable areas and have
dialogue with the communities from time to time
through community outreach. The fire services do
organise such activities but it needs a boost. In
addition, the fire tenders need to be equipped with
communication equipment, especially mobiles, so
that they can begin to get basic information even
prior to arriving on site. Such an advance
assessment could help in preparing for response
including devising strategies and tactics seeking
additional help such as early deployment of
motorcycle-borne fire fighters to get a first hand
report of the fire’s extent.
Third, lack of proper pre-hospital medical
response on site further compounded the impact.
Apparently there was no arrangement for triage for
those who were rescued. As a result everyone was
sent to hospital.
Fourth, all the injured were sent to government
hospitals as per press reports -- Safdarjung Hospital,
Lady Hardinge Medical College and AIIMS Trauma
Center – with some of them as far away as 22 km.
Standard operating procedure demands that the
administration enter into agreement with private hospitals in the jurisdiction so that in case of any
disaster, the injured/ affected are taken care of in
nearest hospital. Moreover, burn patients need
treatment which cannot be provided in every hospital.
Fifth, lack of a proper communication strategy in
times of an incident meant that there was a lot of
confusion, desperation and chaos among the relatives
of those trapped or injured in the fire.
Sixth, lack of awareness of basic preparedness
measures among the affected further compounded the
impact. Majority of them were choked to death. Out
of 43 casualties, asphyxiation caused 39. Those living
in the building apparently were not aware as to how
they could escape with smoke all around. There was
no one to guide them. This brings us to the challenge
of preparing the community. Agreed, it was an illegal
unit which need not be there but given the fact that
such issues exist in our country, should there be an
effort to build capacity of such people?
Addressing the issues highlighted above need not
take a lot ofresources.These are the types of issues our
fire services and the entire emergency management
system can address over the short term while we also
address the medium and long term issues.
- The views and opinions expressed in the article
are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
the official policy or position of NDMA.
1.Comments will be moderated by NDMA'seditorial team. 2.Comments that are abusive, personal, incendiary or irrelevant cannot be published. 3.Please write complete sentences. Do not type comments in all capital letters, or in all lower case letters, or using abbreviated text. (example: u cannot substitute for you, d is not 'the', n is not 'and'). 4.We may remove hyperlinks within comments. 5.Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name, to avoid rejection.
Comments
Post a comment