The KTC fire was apparently not initiated through carelessness but due to an electric short circuit at the Presidential Supermarket.
This incident serves as a critical reminder of the dangers present in all our badly-equipped buildings, especially the government offices all over Goa. Voltage surges damage expensive equipment even in our well-maintained homes and one can imagine the danger in such offices.
Any of these offices could be caught unawares and the flames could harm people, besides ruining documents and data.
I believe, the entire system of granting permissions for any premises should be overhauled as there seems to be no co-ordination between the CCP, the electricity department and the Directorate of Fire Services in assessing that only those premises that comply with all fire-safety norms should be allowed to function.
The blame game has to cease and concrete action has to be taken to prevent such fires, especially in government as well as private premises, by providing adequate firefighting equipment so as to prevent future fires of such magnitude.
I recommend the following safety measures could be implemented to ward off fires in future. First of all, smoke detectors linked remotely to mobiles of the officials in-charge and to the fire department, as a fire alarm, should be provided. With new ‘apps’ available for phones I am sure someone can make an app that will send an alert if a service (in this case a smoke detector) is triggered.
Voltage stabilizers with circuit breakers to prevent fires by heat generated due to spikes or fluctuations should be installed, besides providing firefighting equipment at all areas such as sprinklers, fire fighting hoses and pipes connecting to source of water, dry chemical powder, canisters, carbon dioxide canisters and halon so as to enable trained staff to douse small fires before it gets out of control.
Concealed wiring to prevent air from aiding fires due to access to oxygen should be installed and proper digitization of records should be done so as to save important documents from fire or water damage, since any documents destroyed by the fire, will quite possibly be destroyed by the sprinklers and other firefighting efforts. Again, thorough inspection should be done immediately, especially of those offices that have combustible records such as the Directorate of Archives & Archaeology and the Sub-Registrars of various talukas. There should be a timely maintenance of all firefighting equipment in all the premises in the State and a nodal agency to co-ordinate granting of occupancy certificates, NOCs etc should be formed.
An authorized flying squad to attend to complaints of unsafe electrical wiring and inadequate sheathing of electrical wires in premises should also be formed. Encourage the use of other fire extinguishers such as dry chemical powder for electrical fires.
And finally, old documents should be stored in safe houses away from the main office to prevent damage.
