Ignoring a Burning Issue

DANGER BELL: Ranganathan Street where people floating all the time is in a huge risk of without any preventive measures taken by CMDA authorities. - Photo: Google Images

PANKAJ MENON

CHENNAI

Stitching in his shop located at Lucky Plaza, thirty five year old Subramanian finds that his day is quite early done. Once a very busy man with about 6 to 7 workers under him, Subramanian is now straining to find work His rented shop in Lucky Plaza has descended from the high class air conditioned atmos­phere, to being charred and cracked by the fire accident of September 1, 2008.

“We do not receive customers as we used to, before the fire. Those days, we earned about 3000 to 5000 a day. But now, we receive only about 400 to 500 per day,” said Subramanian.

The catastrophic fire of 2008 has destroyed about 24 of the 48 shops in the first two floors of ‘Lucky Plaza,’ a famous tailoring complex situated in Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar. The accident caused damages estimated to several lakhs of rupees and claimed two lives.

But despite this devastating incident which took place three years ago, shocking is the fact that even today, none of the multiplexes in Ranganathan Street are approved by the fire and rescue services department for adequate fire safety. This revelation comes in response to an RTI query to the fire and rescue services department, seeking information regarding the safety precautions and authorization of shops in the area.

Though several shops claim to have fire cyl­inders at store in case of a fire break out, the ironical fact is that very few of them know how to use the particular safety measure. “We do not know how to use the cylinder,” was the response given by the workers of these shops. Also, these fire cylinders can only stop the fire at early stages, and thus, in case of a major fire break out, essential preventive measures such as a sprinkler system is absent.

The very fact that almost all the shops in Ran­ganathan Street that have wide and sprawling show rooms, but have only a single exit sys­tem, is baffling. “We find it very difficult to move through the place on a normal day. The situation in case of a fire break out is some­thing unimaginable,” says Ragahvan, a regu­lar shopper from one of the leading shops. “In case of another fire break out in the wee hours, a stampede is something guaranteed to occur,” he says.

The crammed ally way that Ranganathan Street has turned out to be, is also another ma­jor cause of concern as the fire engines would find it tough to enter the premise in case of an­other fire break out. This trouble was already brought into focus in the previous fire that occurred early in the morning. But despite all this to be considered, the authorities are yet to take any move regarding the issue. Respond­ing to the lack of fire security in Ranganathan Street, an official source from the Fire and Rescue Services department said “We do not have any authority to demolish any buildings. We just have the certifying authority. It is the CMDA who is supposed to take action.”