FIRE SAFETY NORMS IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS AND ITS IMPORTANCE

A article by Pratik Kataria, director, Sainath Developers (The House of Kataria); president, nextGen committee, Naredco Maharashtra

News about fire accidents in resi-dential buildings come across quite commonly earlier but have reduced drastically, but the re-duction in the frequency cannot underestimate the seriousness of the issue. According to a 195-nation analysis conducted in the year 2017, India recorded 1.6 million fires and 27,027 deaths in a year. The risk is higher in residential buildings especially in high-rise apartments because evacuation is trickier.

Residential spaces in India are subjected to fire hazards due to a lot of reasons like faulty layout, dearth of right instruments, poor or inferior wiring and of course lack of awareness. Additionally, there are so many close-knit structures here, especially in the metro cities, that do not adhere to the fire safety norms, like having a designated fire exit and also have improper ventilation, so they are always at a risk of mishaps.