Building hazards: On preventing and fighting fires

E ach major fire accident in cities that ends up claiming human lives fleshes out different sets of causative and exacerbating factors. The recent one in Shahdara in East Delhi highlighted a lack of sufficient attention to planning for evacuating buildings in the case of emergencies, mainly fire. Nine people were killed and some 15 were rescued with grievous injuries in that accident. The residential building — stilt plus four floors comprising eight houses — had security enhancing features that turned out to be deadly: electronic locks on doors that could not be opened; a terrace that was not easily accessible; and metallic grills around the building including on balconies that had to be cut for access by fire service personnel seeking to rescue the victims. A fire in March in Palam, in which nine of an extended family died, highlighted access problems that fire services face in Delhi. The mixed-use building had few of the recommended firefighting facilities required in such buildings. Eyewitnesses complained that the hydraulic lifts used by fire services personnel to access higher floors were malfunctioning. Though the fire services insist they reached the Shahdara accident spot on time, response times have been longer in the capital city at other times. In a fire in Dwarka in 2025, fire engines could not enter the residential society because the name board of the society was blocking them.

While there is certainly a case for reviewing the fire preparedness and fire-fighting capabilities of Delhi, what often goes unaddressed are electrical problems that cause these fires across Indian cities. As summer sets in, air-conditioning blasts are often casually cited as in the Shahdara fire. What often happens is overloading of equipment such as the airconditioner during hot summer days. The wires that are not designed to handle such loads burn due to heat and the circuit breakers that should have tripped the equipment as protection do not do so. In India, the hierarchy of loads and circuit breakers is often not observed as residences are packed with high load equipment beyond what the system can safely carry. The intent is often to keep the equipment running under all conditions whereas tripping of overloaded equipment is a necessary safety feature. City authorities talk of drones and robots to fight fires when even the basic preventive measures are not in place.