HYDERABAD: The fire and emergency services department is these days, quite rightly, insisting on fire safety measures in high-rise buildings,
but there is dearth of qualified fire engineers, experts and fire officers in the city to provide support services.
More than 200 major commercial complexes, malls, multiplexes have come up in the city in the last few years apart from a few hundred smaller commercial complexes and residential complexes in the city.
Nearly 351 high-rise buildings recently inspected by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal corporation (GHMC) and fire services were found lacking adequate means of access, escape and other mandatory fire systems.
With non-availability of fire engineers, experts and with great demand for the engineers, builders are engaging retired fire officers of the fire services department, ex-defence personnel, and some are handing over the responsibility of ensuring fire safety aspect to facility managers.
As per the National Building Code (NBC), part IV, followed by the AP Fire Services, commercial complexes — malls, multiplexes and buildings — should have a fire safety manager or fire officer for designing and upkeep of the equipment and even for rendering help in the event of any fire accident.
"Ideally fire engineers should be engaged by the builders or owners of the high-rise commercial buildings, but many of them do not have any qualified fire safety managers or fire officers. There is no specific qualification in the NBC," a senior fire services officer said.
"There is a great demand for fire engineers in the state and in the country as a whole. Even 30 to 40 engineering graduates in fire specialisation passing out from the National Fire Service College, Nagpur, are preferring the private sector due to lucrative packages," additional director of fire services, G Pratap Reddy, said.
The National Fire Service College at Nagpur is the only place in the country offering a bachelor course in engineering (fire) with an annual intake of 30 students. But the college has reportedly stopped taking students in the course due to non-availability of faculty to the course. There are, however, some institutes which offer diploma or certificate courses in fire safety.
The UK-based Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE) conducts an examination every year to recognise fire experts and consultants. Some institutes in Goa, Bangalore and other places offer diploma and certificate course in fire safety and other courses related to fire but do not have government recognition.
"A qualified fire engineer or expert conducts mock drills and maintains the equipment. In case of any emergency or if any equipment does not work, the engineer can recognise the problem and do trouble shooting," V Srinivas, fire consultant and managing director of Synergy Infra Consultant Pvt Ltd, said.
As of now, contractors are providing fire safety equipment in the high-rise buildings and some contractors are also doing one year annual maintenance of the fire equipment. But they are not experts in fire-fighting and other safety aspects.
"Some town planners said the fire services department should take the initiative to train more people like architects, ex-defence officials and planners in the fire safety aspects also," Tammineni Narsimha of Fire Safety Association of India said.
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