Fire officials say they’ve given repeated safety recommendations, but civic body claims it’s still waiting for suggestions
MARGAO
Have the authorities conducted a fire audit of the over century-old Margao Municipal heritage building as part of fire-fighting preparedness to meet any eventuality?
Well, it’s now two years since a minor fire inside the councillor’s room of the Margao Municipal heritage building had exposed the chinks in the fire-fighting armoury. Sadly, a fire audit is yet to take place till date for reasons best known to the authorities.
With the Margao Municipal gearing up for a major renovation of the heritage structure at the whopping cost of around Rs 14 crore, the civic body is keen to incorporate the fire safety measures in the renovation plan to beef up the fire-fighting preparedness to meet future requirements.
Incidentally, Margao Municipal engineer Deepak Desai informed that the Municipality had dashed off a letter to the fire services to conduct a fire audit of the Municipal building. “The fire services had replied back seeking the plan of the Municipal building to conduct the fire audit. We had immediately submitted the plan to the fire services, but till date we are not in receipt of the recommendations,” he added.
The Municipal engineer further said that the civic body would submit the recommendations made by the fire services to the consultant to incorporate the fire safety recommendations in the building renovation plan.
When The Goan called up officials of the fire services to shed light on the status of the fire audit, an official said that fire officials had been making recommendations to the Margao Municipality from time to time to beef up the fire safety precautions, but in vain. “The fire services were supposed to send the recommendations to the MMC as part of the fire audit. I will check the documents whether the correspondence has been made to the MMC,” the official said.
The fire services official further said that the Fire Department had made several recommendations to the Margao Municipal Council in recent time on fire preparedness, but in vain.
It was in early March 2023 that the Margao Municipal councillor’s room reported a minor fire, triggering panic amongst the Municipal staff and citizens. The fire was immediately brought under control, but questions remain unanswered over the inordinate delay by the MMC and the Fire Services to conduct the fire audit of the heritage building.
