Calcutta Fire Toll rises to 43 people and the historic Stephen Court building has been poorly damaged. Many were also injured in the fire - many when they were forced to jump from high floors to escape.
Stephen Court, built by Armenian real estate speculator Stephen Arathoon in 1910, is one of Calcutta's oldest high-rises. There are thousands of such old buildings and structures exist in the country which is poorly maintained and lacks basic fire protection equipment. Also such buildings are vulnerable to fire because many still has wooden staircase which get destroyed first and its fire-resistance capacity are rarely ascertained.
These building can be saved fully from the ravages of fire by having adequate fire prevention measures and such high degree of devastation can be prevented by following well written and practiced emergency preparedness plan.
Such high tolls in a high rise fire incident in the metro cities are seen as common incident now a day. We recently had one in February in Bangalore where nine people died when flames engulfed one of the tall buildings.
Availability and ability to mobilise rescue tools and equipment such as hydraulic ladders or at least safe nets to allow victims to safely jump could have saved many lives. In adequate facilities with Metro Fire Services to handle high rise fire incidents is to be blamed for the high toll in this fire.
While many blame fire services and the Fire-fighters for the high death toll, one should recognize the efforts of brave fire fighters who struggled several hours to control the blaze with equipment what they have.
It is the poor capabilities of the fire services in metro cities of India are some of the reasons behind such high causalities and frequency of fires in the city's high-rise buildings.
Are these series of incidents are not enough to educate the lawmakers in the country and the authorities in state and Central government the importance of providing infrastructure fund to equip fire services?
