SHAKEELA ANDRABI
SRINAGAR: Rising fire incidents in Kashmir Valley necessitates the importance of a fire safety management policy at commercial centres and delay on this count would only see such fire incidents occurring and reoccurring season after season and year after year at key commercial centres of Srinagar and major towns of Kashmir valley. Fire safety management policy is not suited to fire safety only at hotels, houseboats and hospitals but it is equally suited for the fire safety of commercial complexes, shopping malls and places of greater public attraction in both cities and towns. Initially, the Fire and Emergency Services Department blamed local residents for excessive use of heating gadgets in their homes, but the question arose there, during the last two days on May 19 and 20, fire caused damage to the Traffic Police Control Unit and in the second incident Police Station Kothibagh got partially damaged. In addition, government offices, newly constructed shopping complexes, Mosques and many buildings are burning. So how can the Fire and Emergency Services Department just call it a human error? It is worth mentioning here that in 2017, the then government had decided to conduct a fire safety audit of all government and non-government establishments, which is still in a queue. Recently, when a fire broke out at the Bone and Joint Hospital Barzulla Srinagar, the Divisional administration once again issued a fire audit order to all hospitals and government buildings, but this order is yet to be completed on the ground.
Last month a massive fire broke out in Gojwara Chowk of the downtown area of the Srinagar city, damaging a mosque and two shopping complexes. The Fire and Emergency Services official said the incident was caused by a short circuit, but it was not immediately clear if it was a short circuit or something else.
The data prepared by the Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES) department revealed that property worth Rs 4572.26 lakh and belongings worth over Rs 40306.38 lakh was damaged in these incidents.
