Kamala Mills Tragedy Showcases Our Lack of Concern for Fire Safety

The Kamala Mills Compound fire tragedy yet again highlights how unprepared our metros are for such mishaps. The fire which started in a restaurant soon engulfed the entire building and claimed lives of 14 people, while 19 got seriously injured.

All these incidents should stimulate a discussion in those who dwell in congested parts of cities, big or small. How safe is the area that we live in, to fire breakouts? What precautions are being taken to prevent a major fire mishap from breaking out in our vicinity? Do the societies and sky rise apartments we live in have proper fire safety measures? Have we taught our children what to do in such situations?

Many journalists and writers expressed their condolences to the victims of Kamala Mill Tragedy. They also expressed concern on this lack of proper measures taken by governing bodies, indicating that the they had seen it coming.

Please, please, can we have Safety first on our list of (granted) wishes for 2018.? Mumbai has been scarred way way too much this year. Living it up is too terrible a way to die. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of these young people.

— bachi karkaria (@bachikarkaria) December 29, 2017

Had office at #KamalaMills for 2 years. Lasting memories. There were hardly one or two restaurants then. Now there are 30. Strongly feel this tragedy has to do with our love of jugaad, shortcuts, circumventing law

— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) December 29, 2017

"What happened at Kamala Mills is really, really sad. So many families affected. It's important for the mainstream media to cover such stories. Hoping someday all restaurant, offices and even residential apartments follow all fire safety norms" said journalist Rohit Khilnani,

So did a survivor

The #KamalaMills fire started at 1 Above. I was there and barely made it out alive. Some were not so lucky. Praying for the injured and the deceased. It was the scariest thing I have ever survived!

— Dr Sulbha KG Arora (@SulbhaArora) December 28, 2017

Some also warned about poor safety in other complexes in Lower Parel

Hi Mathuradas Mills, Todi Mills, right fucking NOW is a good time to check safety of all your restaurants, pubs. Your worse than #KamalaMills

— Anupam Gupta (@b50) December 29, 2017

The national capital of Delhi, notorious for willingly racing towards an apocalyptic fate has seen such tragedies unfold as well. A fire broke out in Khan Market in July this year, luckily no one was injured. Then in October a fire broke out in a four-storied building in West Delhi, which eventually led to its collapse. Luckily no one was injured.

Shaili Chopra, Founder, SheThePeopleTV, recalled “I know someone who recently moved their office in Delhi in a slick neighborhood because during the fire drills they realized people just get stuck in the stairs and never make it out of the doors”

But it isn’t as if these incidents are isolated to India alone. Across half the globe, 12 people died in Bronx, New York, in an apartment building fire on the very day.

Just in June this year the city of London experienced the tragic Grenfell Tower fire, in which 71 people lost their lives.

In 2010, a fire in high rise apartment building in Shanghai led to deaths of 58 people. Our history is full of such tragic incidences. Yet we refuse to learn from them. We do not take fire safety seriously in our metro cities. With increasing population, soaring land prices, and increasing congestion per square kilometer, we might as well be sitting on a barrel of TNT.

Many people are calling out for tighter regulations to ensure fire safety in restaurants and office buildings. But what of the hazardous webs of electric wires that loom above our heads in dense old markets of every city? Such areas are prone to accidents due to short circuit or transformer explosions.

Be it the Elphinstone Road stampede or the collapse of a 117-year-old building in Bhendi Bazar in August 2017. The public and the governing bodies have been treating the incidents of metro mishaps with utmost apathy.

There are so many old decrepit building barely standing up on their iron girdles, in areas like Ghatkopar, Bhiwandi, Dongri etc.

The fire safety issue, or the collapse of old buildings, or the stampedes…we just wash our hands off the issue by blaming it all on the oversight of the municipal corporation. And then we go back to party at another unsafe pub in Hauz Khas village or in another mill complex in Lower Parel.

It seems that for metropolitan dwellers, the lodging has become more important than their lives. They will keep living in such complexes, overlooking the lapses in safety measures, and just pray, that such a thing does not happen to them.

We need to motivate people to vacate hazardous dwellings. Every restaurant, theaters, office building, complex etc should under disaster management test, to make sure that they are prepared to handle break-out of fire, earthquakes or even stampedes.

Restaurants, especially those which offer barbecues, or open fire grills need to take measure to make sure they can contain fire lighted by accident.

The governing bodies also need to plan according to the exponential growth in megacities like Mumbai and Delhi. They should not wait for disasters to happen, and then setting up enquiries and taking action. Proper planning and ample precautions will help prevent deaths of many innocent people. Most those who died in yesterday’s mishap were young women, whose only fault was that they chose to dine at a place which did not take fire safety regulations seriously.

The change will not come unless we start pushing for it. I am just praying that no one else has to pay the cost of her or his life, for us to shed our ‘chalne do yaar’ attitude.

Also Read : Taking Selfies Amidst an Emergency Is Not Cool People!

Dr Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section.  The views expressed are the author’s own