The Brazilian nightclub fire that killed nearly 250 people, many of them university students, is a tragedy too terrible to behold. That it was sparked by something as innocuous as simple pyrotechnics let off by the band only shows such accidents are just waiting to happen in a world where the young and upwardly mobile people are congregating more and more in entertainment hubs like bars, nightclubs and movie halls.
It would be a mistake to view this as a tragedy that happened half a world away. We in India have witnessed too many similar tragedies — at places of worship, where stampedes occur regularly, as they do at cinema halls and hospitals, where deadly fires have been known to erupt. Maintenance is such a low priority in most public places in India that there is really no guarantee that we, as a society, have done enough to protect those likely to be up and about town rather than cocooned in safe and lonesome places.
The least that one should expect on such matters is regular monitoring of available safety features like sprinklers, early warning systems and water hydrants, and to ensure these are in working order by running drills at regular intervals. Our firefighters, like their tribe across the world, are some of the bravest people, but if they have to be called it means something untoward had already happened. The first task is, therefore, to focus on prevention: as the age-old dictum reminds us, that is better than any cure.