Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Many housing societies have failed to renew fire license' that was published in Newsband

Many housing societies have failed to renew fire license

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Just recently there was a fire at a highrise in Kharghar. This has made urgent the need for a fire-safety audit. The housing societies in Navi Mumbai, those falling within CIDCO’s jurisdiction, are not paying attention to this important need.

The fire brigade officials are called immediately when the fire breaks out in any society. But when the fire officials rush to that spot they are in for a shock. They face several difficulties in carrying out their job since the buildings are found to possess fire safety license which are not renewed and also the fire extinguishers most of the time are found not in a working condition.

It is not that CIDCO authorities have not conducted programs which focus on creating awareness on the importance of carrying out a fire safety audit among housing societies. In fact they conduct such awareness programs regularly in order to ensure inhabitants’ safety.

The society obtains the buildings from the builders with all the necessary documents and clearances. After that it is the duty of the society to renew the fire safety license every six months and carry out the fire safety audit regularly.

Only few from among many housing societies, commercial complexes, educational institutions and other structures, for whom it is compulsory to get the fire NOC, go for regular fire safety license renewal.

One can’t expect CIDCO officials to go door to door in every housing society and get them to renew their fire license. The best that they can do is make the members of the societies aware of the need to renew their fire license. CIDCO do keep reminding the people but many of them don’t take these reminders seriously.

Just recently CIDCO made a firm decision of sending official notices to those builders who have not renewed fire safety license. They will be asked to carry out the procedure, failing which, three warnings will be given to them after which, if they have still failed to renew the license, strict action will be taken against them.

The entire MIDC area of Taloja and the Kharghar, Uran, Dronagiri and Kalamboli nodes come under Kalamboli fire brigade. To cater to these areas, the fire brigade has only 58 personnel of which only 20 are permanent while the rest are working on a contract basis. The authorities need to look into this matter too since if a fire breaks out in any one of these areas, the fire brigade will have a tough time in carrying out their duties. Hence it should be equipped with enough manpower.