Spate of blazes prompts call for greater focus on fire safety in Indian workplaces

Each year, the onset of summer sees an increase in the number of fires in factories, offices and commercial buildings like schools in India. Many of the incidents are caused by electrical short circuits, shortcomings in fire, building and industrial equipment and procedures, and human error.

Photograph iStock credit DarthArt

On 13 June, at least 19 workers suffered burn injuries when hot steam leaked from a pipe in a blast furnace at a Tata Steel’s Meramundali plant in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district. All 19 of the workers required hospital treatment for burns caused by the hot water, with two of them reportedly in a critical condition in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Cuttack.  

“The injured were immediately shifted to the occupational health centre inside the plant premises and then to Cuttack for further treatment, as a precautionary measure, in the company’s ambulance, accompanied by doctor and paramedics,” a company statement said. “The accident occurred at 1:00pm on 13 June during the course of the inspection work and has affected a few people working at the site.”

Tata said that following the steam leak, all the necessary emergency protocols were immediately activated and the area was cordoned off. “The company is ensuring all necessary information and support to the families of the affected personnel. We are working closely with relevant authorities on ground and have initiated an internal investigation to ascertain the cause of the accident,” it added.

Meramandali Works is one of India’s largest integrated steel mills with an annual steelmaking capacity of 5.6 million tonnes.

Two days later, on 15 June, a fire broke out at a three-storey building in Mukherjee Nagar, North Delhi, being used as a coaching centres for students, forcing scores of students to evacuate down the side of the building using ropes and wires, climb onto external air conditioning units and even jump to the ground.

According to Delhi police, 61 students, as well as some staff from a commercial office inside the building, suffered burn injuries to their arms, necks and legs, as well as injuries caused by jumping from the building. Two students reportedly suffered severe injuries in the incident, which is thought to have been caused by a short circuit in an electricity board.

Following the blaze, Delhi’s High Court ordered a fire safety audit of several hundred student coaching centres across six areas of the city. According to senior fire officials, over 100 coaching centres in areas including South Extension, Laxmi Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Janakpuri, Karol Bagh and Kalu Sarai underwent inspection.

“A five-member team of the fire department has been constituted and inspections are being carried out as per the court order,” said an official from Delhi Fire Services (DFS). “Some of the criteria under which the inspections are being done are availability of entry and exit points on the premises and basic firefighting equipment like a fire extinguisher, sprinklers, among others.”

According to media reports, the officials found “discrepancies” in the fire safety mechanism of around 130 of the coaching centre buildings. The failings included only a single entry and exit route, narrow and poorly lit escape routes, no emergency exits and a lack of fire alarms, fire sensors and fire-fighting water tanks. Classrooms were also found to be housing more students then was considered safe for the available space.

It is estimated there are around 2,000 student coaching centres in Delhi, and the DFS has now asked all of the centres to provide details of their fire safety plans so the fire service can compile data on the exact number of centres in the city.

The DFS says it will look at the specifications of all the buildings inspected so far, such as size and the number of floors, to decide whether or not they have adequate fire safety measures in place. The fire service is also urging students and parents to report any fire safety failures at coaching centres, including sending on photographs, so the DFS can inspect the building and take any appropriate enforcement action.

Following the inspections, the CEO and the owner of two coaching centres were arrested, for allegedly running a centre without the necessary official fire safety approvals.

On average, 35 people were killed in fire-related accidents every day between 2016 and 2020, according to a report by Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI), maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Electrical short-circuits are one of the most common causes of fires. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that electrical short-circuits caused 1,812 fires in 2020, only marginally less than the 2,183 recorded nationwide in 2019.

Fires also frequently occur in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. On 30 June, seven workers were critically injured and admitted to hospital after a blaze broke out in a private pharmaceutical laboratory in Atchutapuram’s Industrial Special Economic Zone, in the Anakapalli area of Visakhapatnam. According to media reports, two of the seven workers later died of their injuries.

The blast reportedly happened while solvents were being loaded into the solvent recovery plant at pharmaceutical site. Preliminary investigations suggest that the explosion was probably triggered by a reaction during the solvent-loading process.

According to the local police chief, an investigation is being carried out into how the incident occurred and whether there was any negligence by the factory’s management, reported the news agency ANI.

Kurasala Kannababu, minister of agriculture and cooperation in Andhra Pradesh’s state government, led by the ruling YSR Congress Party, claimed that a lack of fire safety audits by the state’s fire department had contributed to the number of fires in business premises like factories in Visakhapatnam, according to a report by ANI news agency.

He alleged that state fire officials were failing to check fire safety at factories and granting pharmaceutical companies permission to operate without the necessary fire safety measures being in place, reported ANI.