Weekend amusement at a gaming arcade in Gujarat’s Rajkot went horribly wrong as at least 28 holidayers, including nine children, were charred to death in a sudden blaze. Hours later, six newborns died in a massive fire at a children’s hospital in Delhi. A few days ago, a boiler blast at a chemicals factory in Maharashtra’s Dombivli killed more than 10 workers and left many others injured. Preliminary probe into the Rajkot fire traced its source to sparks from some welding work on the premises.
The holiday crowd got trapped as basic fire safety protocols like adequate extinguishers, emergency exits, and trained personnel for quick evacuation appeared to be missing in the sprawling TRP game zone. The blazing hot sun beating down on the air conditioned multi-storeyed temporary structure built using metal and fibreglass and encased in tin sheets made it a tinderbox. Taking suo motu cognisance of the holiday horror, the Gujarat High Court called it a man-made tragedy as reports suggested the Gujarat Comprehensive General Development Control Regulations were bent to create the temporary structures.
Whether or not it had the paperwork to run the facility, like a no-objection certificate from the fire safety department, is a matter of investigation. A special investigation team set up by the Gujarat government has already begun the probe. As for the Delhi hospital, it too is said to have lacked regulatory clearances. Exploding oxygen cylinders within the premises made the intervention of fire safety personnel risky. A few of the rescued babies are recuperating at another hospital.
While the owner and manager of the Rajkot facility have been arrested, the administrative machinery in the city must be held accountable if it is found that they let it function without clearances. Likewise, the Delhi and Maharashtra administrations must be taken to task. Only a quick and transparent probe as well as exemplary punishment would act as a deterrent for the brazen circumventing of norms. Mercifully, all gaming centres across Gujarat have been ordered shut for a fire safety audit. Other states, too, could follow suit.
While the governments announced ex-gratia reliefs, the matter should not end there. Revisiting fire safety codes is a national imperative, more so as the heat wave sweeping the country has a multiplier effect on the risk of fire hazards. There can be no loss of innocent lives to satisfy the greed of a few.