Deadline for fire audit of hospitals expires

LOKMAT NEWS NETWORK

Nashik, Mar 3

The fire audit of the hospitals in the city, by the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), has been affected by inadequate manpower, and despite the expiry of the deadline, no action has been taken by the civic body.

The Fire Department of the Nashik Municipal Corporation had instructed the private hospitals in the city to conduct a fire audit. The hospitals were given a deadline of February 18 for this. However, due to inadequate manpower in the fire department, the fire audit is conducted at a slow pace. One wonders when this audit will be completed.

Hospitals must conduct fire audits twice a year. Last year, 400 private hospitals ignored the fire audit, yet the municipal corporation did not take any action against them. Instructions have been given to redo the fire audit of private hospitals in January this year. However, hospitals are not responding to the municipal corporation despite the deadline given by the fire department. The fire officials are killing time by saying that there is no manpower. Importantly, the fire department does not have statistics on how many hospitals have conducted fire audits so far. Last year, out of 647 hospitals, only 246 hospitals were fire audited. As many as 401 of these hospitals have not been audited.

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It is mandatory to have a fire prevention system in all types of buildings, including hospitals, multi-storied educational buildings, industrial buildings, godowns, marriage halls, cinema halls, malls, offices, complexes, beer bars, restaurants, hotels, lodges and residential buildings above 15 meters of height. Although fire audits have been made mandatory since January, the shortage of manpower is currently affecting it. Since a fire audit is mandatory, the hospitals that will not conduct a fire audit will be served with notices.

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The fire audit of the hospitals is underway, and although the deadline is February 18, information is still being collected. Due to inadequate manpower in the fire department, information about how many hospitals have conducted fire audits could not be obtained. Trying to get it is going on.

-Sanjay Bairagi, Chief Fire Officer, Municipal Corporation.

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Notably, 586 posts are going to be filled in the Fire and Health Department of the Municipal Corporation. But currently the government has a recruitment proposal and it has not been approved yet. A question is being raised about when the recruitment process will start.