District Fire Officer J. Mohana Rao has asked the hospitals, hotels and educational institutions to get the fire fighting equipment installed on their respective premises periodically, saying that maintenance of the equipment is more important than installation.
“Proper maintenance of the equipment ensures protection of lives and valuable property in cases of fire accidents,” said Mr. Mohana Rao after inspecting the several hotels and colleges.
He said a few equipment such as fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, fire sprinklers, hydrants, fire safety pipeline were found defunct at several facilities owing to lack of maintenance. There are 33 private hospitals and 446 educational institutions in the district. However, one hotel among the inspected facilities was found to have obtained the No Objection Certificate and the mandatory licence from the Fire Department as per the safety precautions and guidelines, he said.
Renewal of licence
“The government has recently allowed many institutions to renew fire licence once in two years. Earlier, the licence was valid for one year. The institutions needed to check their equipment and put them in good condition before submission of applications to the Fire Department for annual renewal,” he said.
Mr. Mohana Rao said that all the officials of the nine fire stations in the district had been strictly instructed to create awareness about the importance of repairs, regular maintenance and periodical checkup of the equipment installed on their premises.
“In the backdrop of deadly fire accidents in the COVID-19 wards of several hospitals, we are giving a top priority to the safety of patients and medical staff. We have advised the government hospitals and primary health centres (PHCs) to install fire fighting equipment at the earliest,” said Mr. Mohana Rao.
“With the schools and colleges resuming classes across the district, the managements need to check the condition of the equipment as they might not have been tested for the last two years due to the closure of educational institutions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
