Fire safety: Inspectors find universal neglect

HYDERABAD: “Insufficient fire-fighting equipment and unauthorised occupation in cellar.” This is remark is repeated ad nauseum in a report on hospitals inspected by the fire prevention wing (FPW) of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.With the inspections getting into high gear in the last four days, almost hospitals searched so far have come up astoundingly short on firefighting equipment. Only one hospital, Global Hospital at Lakdi-ka-Pul has the full complement of fire-fighting facilities.The FPW team has inspected 14 corporate hospitals so far and submitted its report to the GHMC’s additional director for fire prevention, Lakshmi Prasad.Over the next 30 days, all the hospitals in the city will be looked over. One disturbing finding so far has been that the cellars in 13 out of 14 corporate hospitals are being used for anything but parking purposes. Some run canteens in them, some have let it out for other commercial activity. And some use it for storage, just the thing that causeed the AMRI fire tragedy in Kolkata last week.Until now, notices served on over 400 hospitals resulted in little action as regards fire safety norms.A majority took no notice of the notices.