Fire Safety: It's not just about Kolkata, it's all of India

by WisemanOne of our commenters “Wiseman” wrote us a strong, smart comment in response to our coverage of the fire at the AMRI Hospital – Horror hospital: Police file case against AMRI owners under section 304 of penal code– which we have now published as a separate post. In his comment Wiseman rightly points out that the real problem is a lack of fire safety awareness and public discipline in India as a whole. People are unnecessarily blaming Kolkata, it's true that Kolkata has it's deficiencies but AMRI is a modern private hospital, the building is new and is not built in a congested area. Fire services can reach it quickly, this could happen in any city in India.[caption id="attachment_152354" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="AP"][/caption]I saw the Carlton Tower fire in Bangalore. It's the same story everywhere--no fire fighting equipment, no basic fire safety training imparted to people, congested traffic preventing fire engines from reaching in time and to make it worse, people in India stand and watch the accident as if it's some kind of tamasha, many a times blocking the road and access for safety personnel.When the fire broke out in Carlton tower, people rushed onto the streets and blocked the ambulances from reaching the hospital on time. Utter and complete lack of discipline.However, Firstpost author Sandip Roy pointed out, "Actually this is a new building but in a congested area. The fire trucks couldnt get to the back of the building because the approach was too narrow."