NCRB data shows drastic decline in fire accidents and fatalities, but Beyond Carlton says ‘data needs to be cross-checked’

Beyond Carlton is in favour of making National Building Code 2016 binding on all States, establishing a National Fire Safety Authority to oversee uniform policy implementation, mandate that every Tier 1 and Tier 2 city have a 5-year fire safety blueprint, increase the number of burn wards and hospitals, among several other recommendations. 

The number of fire accidents and fatalities have drastically declined in India since 2015, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows, but Beyond Carlton, a civic group formed to work on fire safety following the fire accident at Carlton Towers in Bengaluru in February 2010 that claimed nine lives and caused injuries to over 70 persons, argued that the data needs to be ‘cross-checked’. Beyond Carlton released a report ‘Fire Safety in India: A Beyond Carlton Perspective’, in Bengaluru on February 15, to mark the 15th anniversary of the tragic fire accident. 

According to the report, while the country reported 27,976 fire accidents in 1999 and only 7,566 accidents in 2022, the fatalities due to fire accidents have also come down from 27,561 in 1996 to 7,435 in 2022. The downward trend starts from 2015.

“While the total deaths due to accidents is on the rise between 2015 and 2022, the number of fire accidents and deaths show a decline. While this is good news on the face of it, there is a clear need to double-check on the data collection process and assumptions made. Triangulation using other data sources, like burn registry, hospital data and Fire Department Call Center Data, will help us confirm the progress that the numbers indicate,” the report states. 

The report also pointed out other anomalies: the number of injuries reported seems to be ‘extremely low’ compared to the number of deaths and while the number of cooking gas connections more than doubled since 2014, fire accidents involving cooking gas saw a steep decline. The report shows that over the last four years, 125 persons died in hospital fires in the country, but NCRB doesn’t categorise hospital fires separately.

Beyond Carlton pointed out that the latest data of fire stations and fire personnel available with the government of India dates back to 2018, which shows a severe shortage of resources.

“NCRB collects data from the police, and not the fire services. There is a need for credible data on fire accidents in the country. Data on fire calls, incident and action taken, needs to be digitised and available on dashboards,” said R. A. Venkitachalam, trustee, Beyond Carlton. 

“The nature of fires we fought in the past 25 years would be very different from the fires to come, and we need to be ahead of the curve to effectively fight them. The way we live has changed immensely. We use more polyester, plastic today. For instance, electric vehicle fires are a new phenomenon. We all carry batteries in our phones, laptops and vehicles today. These pose new risks. We need to invest in fire safety infrastructure, including personnel and fire stations, fire-fighting equipment. For instance, there are now fire detection AI powered cameras,” he said.