Cinemas can’t fight fire
Thiruvananthapuram: Thirteen city theatres, served notices in October by the fire and rescue services department for their failure to install sophisticated fire-fighting equipment on their premises, have not replied to them yet, according to Mr R Prasad, Divisional Officer, Thiruvananthapuram.
“We inspected the theatres to see how well equipped they were to fight a fire , and found they had only the basic fire extinguishers and not a Down Comer system with a tank to hold 10,000 litres of water, or the facility to pump 900 litres of water a minute as required under the Kerala Municipal Building rule and the National Building code," he said.
The SL , Kripa, Ajantha, Kairali, Mini Kairali, Sree, Sreepadmanabha, Sree Bala, Sree Kumar, Sree Vishak, New Theatre, Dhanya and Ramya theatres were given two months to install the neccesssary equipment, but there had been no response from them yet, he added.
“We will inspect the theatres again next month and submit a report to the municipal and corporation authorities besides the district collector,” the officer said.
Commandant of the General of Fire and Rescue Services, DGP K S Jangpangi warned that the theatres could even lose their licences if they were not adequately equipped to handle a fire.
“The renovation of Sree Kumar and Sree Vishak theatres will begin next month and we will install all the required fire fighting equipment then. We will equip New Theatre too similarly,” assured their owner, Mr Senthil Subramanian.
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