Kasaragod: Apart from the much-publicised mock drills that the Fire and Safety Department conducts in schools and colleges, does it ensure 'minimum fire safety standards' in educational institutions?
Apparently no. A dogged MSW student found, through RTI queries, that Fire Stations do not even have a list of schools under their jurisdiction.
In March 2016, the then Director General of Fire and Rescue Service Loknath Behera brought out a 36-pointer circular to ensure minimum fire safety standards in educational institutions and asked all divisional officers and assistant divisional officers to ensure the circular is complied with. The officers were directed to ensure the buildings implement the pointers in 30 days. "If they do not comply, send a report to the headquarters to take further necessary action," said the note.
Seven years on, the Kasaragod Fire Officer said in an RTI reply that he was still collating data on how many educational institutes have ensured minimum safety standards. "I am sure the situation is the same in all districts but I did not have the money to send RTI queries to 14 district fire officers in the state," said M V Shilparaj, a second-year MSW student on the Payyannur campus of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit.
When he got 'No' to almost all his questions on fire safety in schools and colleges, Shilparaj took it up with the Regional Fire Officer in Kannur.
The regional officer Renjith P on July 21 wrote to the Kasaragod District Fire Officer to initiate steps to comply with the 2016 guidelines, considering the RTI reply that "majority of the educational institutes in Kasaragod have not ensured minimum fire safety standards".
What triggered the student
Shilparaj took up the cause in January when he visited Kannur Medical College at Pariyaram, where his father Ravindran M P worked as an artist and his mother Usha K V works as a data entry operator. "I was waiting for my parents when I idly checked the fire extinguisher hung on the wall," he said.
The extinguisher expired almost a year ago and had not been refilled. Shilparaj shot off a letter to the Payyannur Fire Station Office the same day with a photograph of the extinguisher. "This fire extinguisher expired on 08.02.2022... Direct the institute to refill the fire extinguisher in 15 days and initiate appropriate action for violating rules," he wrote in the letter.
He then sent an RTI query to the Fire and Rescue headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram seeking to know if educational institutes in the state complied with the minimum fire safety standards.
The headquarters replied saying the fire and life safety requirements were mentioned in the National Building Code of India 2016 released by the Bureau of Indian Standards, and in the Kerala Municipal Building Rules and Kerala Panchayat Building Rules. The department has not issued any specific instructions on having fire extinguishers in buildings, said the RTI reply dated March 14, ignoring the 2016 circular.
On what can be done if a building did not follow fire safety requirements, the Fire Department said it will inform the local body concerned, which is the licencing authority, and request follow-up action.
In June, the department directed Shilparaj to write to the 14 district fire officers for information on fire safety in schools.
Since he did not have money to send queries to 14 districts under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, he picked Kasaragod, his home district.
On July 4, the Kasaragod District Fire Officer replied saying the district has four fire stations -- in Kasargod town, Kanhangad, Kuttikol, and Uppala.
There are 110 schools under Kasaragod Fire Station, he wrote. "But the department did not have data on the number of schools under Kanhangad, Kuttikol, and Uppala fire stations, let alone ensuring fire safety there," Shilparaj said.
Taking up Shilparaj's letter, Kannur Regional Fire Officer Renjith has asked the District Fire Officer to write to the Kasaragod's district education officer to ensure minimum fire safety standards in schools.
But Shilparaj said the 2016 circular had put the onus on Fire and Rescue officers to go to establishments and ensure the standards.
In the circular, the then director general had written that verifications conducted by the Fire and Rescue Department found "fire safety and fire fighting measures are inadequate in most buildings. Either the fire fighting equipment does not exist or does not work".
"It is highly desirable that every type of building should have at least minimum fire safety measures," the note said, listing out the requirements for different types of buildings.
Some of the safety directions for educational institutes listed in the note were:
• Ensure an adequate number of fire extinguishers with periodical maintenance; the expiry date should be affixed on them.
• Properly maintain the hose reel and nozzle
• Ensure hydrant valves and delivery hoses with proper washers
• Manually operated fire alarm systems, sprinklers, and detectors should be monitored, maintained, and records kept.
• Fire pumps should be in working condition with proper maintenance and connected to alternative sources of power supply.
• Automatic system of fire pumps should be in operational condition at all times.
• Awareness classes regarding fire fighting and emergency operations shall be conducted for students in consultation with fire stations and such records should be maintained.
• Schools should prepare emergency plans and display them on every floor.
• Evacuation drills shall be conducted periodically and records maintained.
