Navi Mumbai's gaothan areas a major challenge for fire brigade officials

The fire brigade department will come under a lot of duress in case of fire in the gaothan areas, as the narrow roads would make movement of fire tenders difficult.

“There has been a lot of development in these areas of the city. Residents have erected additional rooms and buildings without leaving enough space for the movement of vehicles in case of an emergency,” said an official.

“At certain places, the road is so narrow that only a single person can move. In case of fire in such areas in the future, the fire brigade will find it very challenging to control the blaze,” the official added.

As far as serving notices to complexes violating fire safety norms are concerned, he said, “The fire brigade has been following up with residential and commercial complexes for keeping their fire safety equipment in proper working condition. While some societies and commercial complexes are meticulously following them, others just give it a go-by.”

He said, “Most commercial complexes are up-to-date with their firefighting systems, a fact that was evident during recent fires at these complexes. Some of them like the Inorbit mall have deployed their own fire marshals in case of exigencies.”

The official added, “We have issued notices to around 450 buildings for violating fire safety norms and we will undertaking an awareness drive soon, to make people aware of the importance of fire safety. Buildings with more than five-storeys need to install fire-fighting systems. While getting an occupancy certificate, it is mandatory to get an no-objection certificate from the fire department.

However, housing societies later tend to neglect the maintenance of such systems, leading to non-functioning systems during an emergency.”