No fire audit report submitted in respect of Pune Heritage structures
9 Nov, 2013Following the devastating fire that broke out at Mantralaya in June 2012, the Maharashtra State Government had instructed all the local bodies to carry out fire audit in their respective area. The lack of preparedness of the government buildings in dealing with fire breakout had come under critical review than.
However, it appears that very little has been achieved as no fire audit report has been submitted by the fire department to the Pune Heritage Committee in respect of the listed 200 heritage structures. The minutes of the meetings of the Heritage Committee obtained under RTI Act shows that the matter came up for discussion more than once.
The issue was discussed for the first time in July 2012 in the presence of the chief fire officer of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Prashant Ranspise wherein it was decided the fire audit would done by the fire brigade department for a nominal fee of Rs. 1,000/- per building. In the subsequent meetings too, the matter came up for discussion with the latest occasion being on March 2013, where the Committee strongly resented on the matter as no follow up was done. As many of the structures involve extensive use of wood as a building material, the matter is critical. Nobody would like another incidence of fire to be repeated to get a wake up call.