THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Firefighters had to battle hard on Tuesday morning to douse a massive fire that broke out in a commercial hub on the Power House Road at the East Fort region. Traders in the region noticed the fire which broke out from a shop which houses a godown of mattresses, umbrellas, bags and other items. Preliminary findings suggest the electric short circuit to be the reason.
Although the Kerala Fire Rescue Services deployed five fire units to the spot, it was quite a task for them to bring the fire under control as the roads were narrow and congested thereby making it difficult for rescue operations. Around six years ago, there were recurring fire incidents at the Chalai market in which 10 traders lost their shops.
Officials from the district administration and the local self government promise compensation and preventive measures after fire outbreaks but have not kept their word, said the Chalai ward councillor S K P Ramesh. Ramesh said the fire at East Fort region was massive and many fire tenders including the one from the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport had to deployed to control the fire.
“Permission has to be granted from higher officials to allow fire tenders in the rescue operations. This has to be addressed," he said. More than 35 mini mist water fire tenders were deployed at the East Fort region but due to technical problems in getting access to the place, it became a daunting task to control the fire. “Most buildings in the East Fort region did not satisfy the fire safety norms,” said R Prasad, director (Technical), Kerala Fire and Rescue Services.
He said when a fire broke out near Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, the district administration had given notices to the traders who failed to satisfy the safety norms but none of them rectified mistakes. The lack of sufficient manpower adds to the complexities during massive fire outbreaks. District fire officer, K Abdul Rasheed, said they had technical difficulties in getting access to the shop because the godown behind the shop.
“There were 17 shops and houses in the vicinity so our task was to prevent the fire from spreading.” He also added, in the coming days, more awareness on fire safety will be spread and people who do not follow the fire safety norms will be taken to task.