The developers of the high-rise buildings in the city have claimed that once the buildings are handed over to the society, the internal fire-fighting system is poorly maintained by the society administration. While the developers need to ensure that fire safety norms are maintained while building the high-rise, the onus is on the society administration to maintain the system.
Meanwhile, the association of societies has also agreed that there’s a serious lapse on their part and proper training process has to be implemented regarding the matter. “Firefighting norms for high rises tend to be quite stringent. Sprinklers are required to be present in every room of every apartment in addition to common areas of the building. That said, I think part of the problem remains in the maintenance and periodic testing of these systems. Once handed over to cooperative housing societies, fire-fighting pumps, and sprinkler systems tend to not be properly checked and audited, thereby resulting in accidents. This is something that needs to be reviewed and implemented as soon as possible,” said Farshid Cooper, MD, Spenta Corporation.
Ramesh Prabhu, the Chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association, said, “Many housing societies do not bother to create volunteers within the building who will be fully aware of the working of the machinery installed in the building meant to be used during a fire emergency. The tanks which are supposed to save water for fire emergency is mixed with the regular water supply tank. The grills are made in such a way that one cannot escape during fire and also even the security guards aren’t trained to use the machines.”
