Fire risk: No serviceable fire extinguishers at Telangana State Museum

Apart from two exceptions of the bronze art gallery and the decorative art gallery, which have portable fire extinguishers, no other room has proper fire retardant measures like alarms or detection sy
It was revealed that almost all of the rooms did not have serviceable fire extinguishers
It was revealed that almost all of the rooms did not have serviceable fire extinguishers

HYDERABAD: History can be a priceless reminder of our past - it shows out shortcomings, and warns us against repeating them in the present.  Such history could be lost due  to fire at the Telangana State Museum which appears to dangerously close to this possibility since it has very few measures to prevent this. It may be recalled that, on September, 2 a massive fire destroyed the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The nation, and even the world, lost priceless treasures accumulated over a period of 200 years. Here at Nampally, officials at the State Museum admitted that they had a dysfunctional fire prevention system. 

When Express visited the museum, it was revealed that almost all of the rooms did not have serviceable fire extinguishers, let alone water sprinklers or alarms. Most of these devices were meant for dousing categories B and C fires, which arise from liquids and gases. There were no devices that could deal with fires arising from the burning of wood. In fact many of these fire extinguishers were last refilled in 2013. 

Apart from two exceptions of the bronze art gallery and the decorative art gallery, which have portable fire extinguishers, no other room has proper fire retardant measures like alarms or detection systems. An official, on the condition of anonymity, said, “Yes, we do have alarms in these galleries, but I doubt that they even work. Even the emergency announcement systems don’t work.” 

One of the attractions is a 2,353-year-old Egyptian mummy  which is exhibited inside a wooden box in a room with a false ceiling. It may be mentioned here that a false ceiling is one of the first structures to come crashing down in a fire accident. 

Also, the museum official said, “On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, this museum is at 1 in terms of fire safety. We have submitted multiple letters to our trustees about this issue, but they have been ignored. We have experienced many cases of electricity fluctuation here in the past, so there is a considerable risk of fire accidents.” 

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