Bihar State Disaster Management Authority flags fire safety lapses in hospitals

At the meeting held on Tuesday, authorities identified 225 fire incident “hotspots” across the state. The discussions focused on fire prevention strategies, awareness programmes, mock drills, safety arrangements in hospitals and public spaces, and the preparedness of various districts.

Officials were instructed to undertake a special assessment of major hospitals in Patna. According to The Times of India, Uday Kant, Vice-Chairman of BSDMA, stated that short circuits had been found to be the leading reason behind most fire incidents reported in the state. He added that directions had been issued to conduct electrical safety audits in densely populated areas, hospitals, shopping malls, coaching centres, and old buildings.

“Officials have also been asked to promote the use of safety devices such as MCBs and ELCBs,” Uday said. Reports of electrical failure have arrived from several districts, including Champaran, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, and Patna. BSDMA secretary Md Waris Khan, senior officials of various departments, additional collectors (disaster management), district fire officers, and other officials were present during the meeting, reports The Daily.

Public facilities like hospitals, malls, cinema halls, and coaching institutes were to go through rigorous inspection by going through a comprehensive 16-point fire safety checklist. A comprehensive 16-point fire safety checklist combines prevention, detection, structural, and procedural measures to ensure a building is safe. The meeting noted that the fire services department has arranged extensive awareness campaigns, mock drills, street plays, LED publicity and social media outreach, which proved to be beneficial in reducing major fire incidents.   

JEEViKA and the Rural Development Department proposed conducting regular fire safety programs across about 18,000 cluster-level federation centres in the state. They aim to involve JEEViKA Didis, anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, and panchayat representatives in the initiative.