N.V. Merani, who headed the state appointed Merani Committee on fire safety and security post 26/11 pointed out on Friday that had the state accepted and implemented few of the recommendations made by the committee, the fire in Mantralaya on Thursday would have had less disastrous consequences. The committee had submitted its report in September 2009.
The government that had been making rules for improved fire safety measures, was caught having serious lacunas in their own backyard.
“Due to changes made inside the Mantralaya and offices being confined, it affected evacuation and outlet for smoke, making the situation dangerous,” said Mr Merani.
“In 2009, the committee had submitted six manuals to the state government that covered various aspects of safety after the 26/11 attack,” said I.C. Sisodia, former member of the Merani committee.
The manuals were on fire protection and evacuation, surveillance, physical protection of systems, architectural controls, security audit and electrification.
One of the recommendations of the report included not keeping combustible material in the passages and keeping it free for effective evacuation. But in the Mantralaya, old wooden cupboards were found lying for years in the passages. Another recommendation was to have two kinds of audits — internal and external. Internal audits of staff and security, as per the report should be done on a quarterly basis. The external audit should be done by the police and fire department annually. Even these measures were not taking in the power corridors of the Mantralaya.
As the ministers demand that their chambers be made of plywood and other flammable material, one more suggestion was to give it a fire protection coating.
“Although wood in any form does burn easily, a coat helps in delaying the fire from spreading,” added Mr Merani.