All commercial buildings, hospitals to be brought under the purview of Fire Services Act

Fire Services Department considering expanding fire regulations to include non-high-rise commercial buildings and hospitals to prevent casualties.

Fire Services Department, in consultation with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and other stakeholders, is seriously mulling over bringing the non-high-rise commercial buildings too under the ambit of Fire regulations.

Deliberations are also on about bringing hospitals into the ambit, through amendments to the Telangana Fire Service Act, 1999, as per the information shared by officials under the condition of anonymity. These provisions might be incorporated into the Act, simultaneously with its amendment in line with the Model Fire Services Bill, 2019, prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs for adaptation by the States.

As per the existing rules, only high-rise commercial buildings over and above 15 metres in height, and residential buildings above 18 metres in height are required to take a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Fire Services Department, in order to get the building permissions. In view of several instances over the past few years, where massive fire accidents occurred in commercial buildings which were under 15 metres in height, the option of bringing all such structures under the purview of the Act is being given a serious thought.

As hospitals are one more area where the casualties could be very high in the event of fire accidents, they too might be brought under the regulatory mechanism, sources shared. One more amendment lined up to tailor the Act after the Model Bill, is to merge Disaster Response services with the Fire Services, officials shared. Once the drafts are finalised, a proposal will be sent to the government for approval.

A series of fire accidents with considerable number of casualties have occurred since 2022, a majority of them in commercial buildings and warehouses. A total 12 migrant labourers died in the fire mishap at a scrap godown at Bhoiguda in March 2022, and eight persons choked to death in another fire accident in September, 2022 at an electrical vehicles’ showroom. Three persons died in one more inferno in a commercial building on Minister Road in January, 2023, while a fire in Swapnalok complex of Secunderabad claimed six lives, in March, 2023.