School is the second home of any child. But are schools really safe in terms of fire mishaps? One of the shocking revelations by the Fire and Rescue officials is that the majority of the schools in the city are vulnerable to fire accidents. Hardly any school follow the norms laid down to prevent fire accidents.
According to Fire and Rescue Department, all schools have to follow certain rules by National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd. This was put into effect in Kochi on 2005.
“This is the major drawback, as all schools were built before 2005. Certain prominent schools are installing equipment. But they are not taking any step in creating awareness on using them,” officials in the Fire and Rescue Department said.
All schools have to get No Objection Certificate before starting a school. But once it is issued inspections are not carried out.
Educational organisations approach fire stations for conducting awareness classes and Fire Safety Week which is part of the syllabus. But the officials in the fire station feel that theory classes alone will not come in handy during real life situations. When ‘City Express’ spoke to a girls' school, the authorities expressed confident that there won’t be any fire mishap in their school.
Ramunni, an engineer of Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Kochi said that their schools have ABC fire extinguishers on every floor. The new buildings adhere to the norms.
Deputy Director of Education, Ernakulam, M D Murali said that schools have no mechanism to tackle major fire mishaps. “The schools are still illequipped ent to tackle any largescale fire accidents.”