52 more fire stations needed in Bengaluru

Team Udayavani, Feb 1, 2018, 3:40 PM IST

Bengaluru: The silicon city which has faced many fire related accidents earlier has only 20 fire stations. The city’s requirement of fire stations is 72.

The issue was noticed on Wednesday when the Bengaluru’s five-year safety blueprint was released by Beyond Carlton, a city-based fire safety community. UdayVijayan founded Beyond Carlt, a month after the Carlton Towers fire on February 10, 2013, which left nine, including his son, dead and 70 injured.

He said that according to the NCRB data, 1,244 people died in fire incidents in Karnataka in 2015. Further, 50% of all deaths due to fires in commercial establishments were reported in Karnataka. According to Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services data, from the year 2011 to 2016, 29 people were killed, 251 injured and property worth Rs 269 crore destroyed due to fire incidents.

RA Venkitachalam of Beyond Carlton says that to fulfil the requirements of 52 more fire stations in Bengaluru, collaborative efforts should be made by other departments such as health and transport. One such example would be linking the property tax to the NOC. That way, the owner can only pay the property tax if they possess the NOC.