All commercial buildings, hospitals will be subject to the scope of the Fire Services Act

Non-high-rise commercial buildings are also subject to the scope of fire regulations. |Picture source: File Photo

The fire department is in consultation with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and other stakeholders and is seriously considering the inclusion of non-high-rise commercial buildings in the scope of fire regulations.

According to information shared by officials under anonymity, the hospital was brought into scope through an amendment to the 1999 Telangana Fire Service Act. These provisions can be incorporated into the bill at the same time and amended under the Department of Affairs for the Model Fire Protection Act of 2019, which was prepared by the Department of the Interior for states to adapt.

Under existing rules, high-rise commercial buildings only above 15 meters high, while residential buildings above height must obtain a certificate of quiltless quilt (NOC) from the fire department in order to obtain permission for the building. Given several circumstances over the past few years, huge fire accidents have occurred in commercial buildings with a height of less than 15 meters, the option to include all such structures into the authority of the bill is seriously considered.

Sources share that since hospitals are an area where casualties may be high in the event of a fire accident, they may also bring it in under regulatory mechanisms. Officials shared that after the Model Act, another amendment tailored the behavior, was to merge disaster response services with fire services. Once the draft is completed, a proposal will be sent to the government for approval.

Since 2022, a series of fire accidents have occurred with a large number of casualties, most of which are in commercial buildings and warehouses. In March 2022, a total of 12 immigrant workers died among the fire losers in the ruins of a Bhoiguda family, and eight people were killed in another fire accident in another electrical car showroom in September 2022. In January 2023, three people died in another hell in a commercial building on Minister’s Road, while the fire at the Swapnarok building in Sestrabad claimed six lives in March 2023.