HYDERABAD: The major fire accident at a rubber factory in Patancheru had revealed that something was seriously wrong with regard to maintenance of fire safety precautions. A random surprise inspection carried out by the Fire services department in 45 factories on the outskirts of the city has brought to light that a majority of the factories were not compliant with the fire safety norms. Between four months of January and April, the State saw 146 fire accidents in factories and industries, according to official figures. Most of the accidents resulted in causing medium and serious damages.
The root cause for such unprecedented inspection by the fire services department was the Patancheru fire accident which occurred in a rubber factory. According to the officials, the fire accident was the second one in April. The factory owner who incurred huge lose of property suffered a heart attack and died.
“After the rubber factory accident, three DFOs (District Fire Officers) were ordered to randomly inspect factories in their respective jurisdiction around the city outskirts. It came to our notice that some of the factories were not equipped with fire safety norms,” said a senior fire officer of the State fire service department.
“The common violation was to not have enough open space in the factories to conduct rescue operations or any such emergency activity,” he observed. In Medak, of the 15 factories inspected, only four factories were compliant with the fire safety norms, the rest flouted rules. Inspections were carried in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts as well which included pharmaceutical companies, rubber factories, and mills.
Officials of the factories department said that notices were being issued to comply with fire safety norms. “We have given notices to some of the factories to improve fire safety norms. If they don’t, we will have to file cases against them and bring them to the prosecution,” said Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories, B Raja Gopal Rao. He added that the fire department should also give notices which can be pursued by factories.