AMRI hospital devastating fire and killing of around 93 perons has raised again question of Fire Safety measures in the commercial establishments specifically hospitals. Due to lack of fire safety measures as well as improper use of the basment of the hospital building which caused one of the worst mishap in India in the hospital. As per AMRI sorces hospital had all the approvals/licenses from the fure department, this shows the prevailing corruption in the audit before issuing of fire NOCs. The fire NOCs are being issued in the lieu of money being offered to inspecting fire officers. The fire safety measures in public buildings has been actually limited to the sheer formailities which leads to high casuality during any disaster. The fire satefy measure includes confirming to fire protection norms in Construction of buildings and management of the fire if at all this happens.

The blame game mounted as the death toll mounted, there were allegations that firemen arrived late on the scene but the fire brigade maintained there was no delay.Additional director general (Fire Services) D Biswas said that the fire brigade was informed at 4.10am and responded immediately, responding to complaints of delay by the kin of some victims.The fire brigade personnel used snorkel ladders and other equipment to reach some of the patients and bring them down to safety, the ADG said.The ADG raised questions about the fire safety measures in the hospital.If proper fire fighting arrangements existed at the hospital, such a blaze could not have taken place. However, senior vice -president of AMRI claimed that the hospital followed strict fire safety measures and conducted regular fire drills. "All statutory safety and fire licences are in place."

In the heat of the incident in Delhi: Seven of India’s top government hospitals, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), will conduct a thorough fire audit and submit a report to the Union health ministry within a week. A day after a devastating fire in a Kolkata hospital claimed 93 lives, most of whom were patients undergoing treatment there; the ministry cracked the whip to ensure that the governmentrun hospitals have full-
proof fire safety measures in place.

Union health secretary wrote a letter to all directors and medical superintendents of premier government hospitals like AIIMS, JIPMER, NIMHANS, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and PGI, Chandigarh, asking them to immediately conduct fire audits and mock drills and submit a report within a week. The government hospitals cater to millions of patients a day. Hence, we don’t want to take any chances. We have asked all our top hospitals to complete a full-fledged fire audit and a fire drill. Once the reports come, we will fill the gaps. All institutes have been told to carry out fire safety training for its staff. In response, AIIMS director Dr R C Deka said that a committee, which includes engineers and doctors headed by medical superintendent Dr D KSharma, has been formed to check the fire safety standards of all the buildings in the AIIMS’ premises. The committee will look into the state of fire safety and preparedness of all the buildings, most of which were constructed around 1956. Though we don’t face a fire hazard risk, we want to check our preparedness in the light of the terrible incident in Kolkata.

As per National Building Code Fire safety measures one of the fire safety requirements is that there needs to be a gap of six metres between buildings inside AIIMS. This could be a problem. However, all the other shortcomings can be taken care off. RML Hospital too sprung into action on Saturday following the ministry’s letter. RML director Dr T S Sidhu said that mock drills and fire audits of all the buildings would be completed by Tuesday, and the report would be submitted to the ministry the following day. A mock drill, involving the staff of its trauma centre, was conducted on Saturday. Sidhu said, “We have installed electronic fire exit signs in the hospital. Today, we conducted mock drills at the trauma centre, checked our fire safety norms and ensured all the hose pipes are in working condition. We have changed our water pipelines, and put separate pipelines for fire outbreaks. Sprinklers have been installed in all the buildings on the campus. We have an engineer from the CPWD as our fire officer. We will ask a doctor to be in charge of the fire preparedness measures.”
   
He added that about Rs 1 crore is being spent to prepare the hospital against fire outbreaks and training of staff on swift evacuation in case of such an incident. TOI had reported on Saturday how at least 27 big hospitals in Delhi, including the cardiovascular and neurosciences centre of AIIMS, are functioning without fire clearances. It included AIIMS’ CN Centre and RML’s Trauma Centre.