The fire on Sunday night at Baba Nivas apartment in Puppalaguda that claimed seven lives, has triggered a warning not only for officials, but also for thousands of residents of 1,800 apartments with penthouses, across the city.
These buildings are not equipped with even the basic fire fighting equipment, when the rules stipulate that all apartments, and penthouses in particular, should have fire fighting equipment.
The government put the onus of installing fire safety equipment on penthouse owners, as other residents refused to share the installation costs, which ranges from between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 6 lakh, depending on the number of flats in the building.
Most of the flat owners, in fact, have demanded the demolition of penthouses, as they were unauthorised.
However, over the last two years, neither did the GHMC demolish the unauthorised penthouses nor did the Fire Prevention Wing ensure that the penthouse owners install fire safety equipment.
Meanwhile, owners of the penthouses insist that the government relaxes rules. “Instead of insisting on installation of fire safety equipment for the entire building, it should be restricted only to the penthouses, in cases where other residents don’t agree to share the cost.
Also, the mandatory second staircase should be abolished. Instead, penthouse owners could contribute Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh each towards equipping the local fire station,” said K. Srinivasan, a penthouse owner.
Death toll in puppalaguda fire rises to 7
The death toll in the Baba Nivas fire rose to seven as one of the victims, G. Padma, 39, succumbed to burns on Tuesday morning at the Osmania General Hospital.
Padma, a resident of Baba Nivas, was alone at home on Sunday night, when the fire engulfed the building.
Her husband G. Srinivas Rao and three children had gone for a movie at the time. Narsingi sub-inspector M. Bupathi said that Padma succumbed to her burns at around 5.20 am.
According to the Doctors in Osmania General Hospital, the victim died due to cardiac respiratory problems. Padma had sustained over 60 per cent burns in the incident.
The victim’s family members were inconsolable as they accepted her body after post-mortem at the hospital mortuary. The body was taken to the victim’s native village in Tenali in Guntur district for cremation.
Meanwhile, another victim Anantha Ravamma, 55, who also sustained severe burns, was shifted to a private hospital in Malakpet for better treatment. The relatives of the victim said that her condition was critical.