Cuttack garment showroom mishap an eye opener

CUTTACK: The fire mishap that occurred at a garment showroom in the busy and congested Palamandap locality on Sunday was an eye-opener for administration and citizens as well.
The mishap exposed the dangers of poor fire safety precautions and difficulties to deal with such exigencies in a congested locality. Though no loss of life was reported in the mishap, but it was for all to see how cumbersome and difficult it was for the firemen to carry out rescue operations in the locality.
As the entire stretch is packed with shops of all sizes and road is encroached, the fire tenders had a tough time in reaching the sites.Vehicular movement on the stretch from Badambadi to Link Road was adversely affected for hours after the mishap. Besides, as the showroom owner had thrown all fire safety norms to wind, the firemen literally risked their lives to douse the flame.
Fire officials said the showroom was over 100 feet tall and but its entrance was so small. As there were no ventilators, the entire structure was covered with heavy smoke. “Our men had a tough time in getting inside the structure and dousing the flames,” said chief fire officer, Sukant Sethi. The fire officials had to demolish walls, use hydraulic ladders and breathing apparatus to enter the structure.
“Fortunately the mishap occurred in morning if it had happened in the evening, then the outcome would have been disastrous. The incident reflects our poor preparedness. Learning lesson from the incident, we should chalk out plan to deal with fire mishaps,” said Nirmal Das, a retired academician. “Administration should also focus on clearing encroachments in the area,” said Shyam Agarwal ,a shop owner in the locality.
After Kamala mills fire tragedy at Mumbai, the fire department had carried out fire safety audit in 7 shopping malls and 5 hotels in the city and found that none of them had fire safety license. The fire audit was not conducted in the garment showroom. “After the incident, we will issue advisories related to fire safety to all commercial establishments in the city. We will also initiate action against those who fail to comply with our orders,” said director general (fire services), BK Sharma.