In what is touted to be the first for any city in India, Beyond Carlton on Wednesday released a five-year fire safety blueprint for Bengaluru, in consultation with the Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services Department. Beyond Carlton is a people’s initiative for fire safety that stemmed out of the Carlton Towers fire tragedy of 2010. Read the full article
Five year plan to make the city fire safe – Deccan Chronicle – 1 Feb 2018
Five year plan to make the city fire safe – Deccan Chronicle – 1 Feb 2018
Citizen-led fire safety initiative Beyond Carlton has formulated a five-year city-specific blueprint for fire safety, the first of its kind in the country.
While releasing the document at a press conference here on Wednesday, Beyond Carlton President Uday Vijayan pointed out that over 17,500 people succumbed to fire accidents in the country in 2015 and called for measures to bring down such casualties. Read the full article
ViewThe city gets a fire safety blueprint – The Economic Times, 1 Feb 2018
The city gets a fire safety blueprint – The Economic Times, 1 Feb 2018
Bengaluru gets a fire safety blueprint
On Wednesday, Bengaluru became the first Indian city to come up with a city-specific fire safety blueprint to be implemented over the next five years beginning this year.
ViewBengaluru gets a fire safety blueprint – The Hindu 1 Feb 2018
Bengaluru gets a fire safety blueprint – The Hindu 1 Feb 2018
This is a first for any city in India
Why Kamala Mills fire tragedy is a warning for urban India – Live Mint 2 Jan 2018
Why Kamala Mills fire tragedy is a warning for urban India – Live Mint 2 Jan 2018
In this article, Uday Vijayan points out how Indian buildings lack the basic infrastructure for fire safety with respect to the rapid urbanization. He also addresses the need for providing inbuilt fire safety measures for high-rise buildings.
In the aftermath of Kamala Mills tragedy, there were a number of reported violations across many Indian cities. In a series of inspection in Delhi, around 400 buildings were found to be having fire safety license. Read the full article
ViewBeyond Carlton’s Uday Vijayan explains how underprepared the cities in India are with respect to firesafety.The rapid growth & urbanization has not got city planners to integrate fire safety as a pre-requisite to urban growth. #KamalaMills https://t.co/u80vdjlyHX @KarFireDept
— Beyond Carlton (@beyondcarlton) January 3, 2018
Fire Safety Lost in High Spirits – Deccan Herald – 7 Jan 2018
Fire Safety Lost in High Spirits – Deccan Herald – 7 Jan 2018
ViewUday Vijayan of Beyond Carlton speaks about the importance of periodical inspection by fire depts.Thr is a strong need for proactive responses rather than the current reactive action taken by the authorities.He says systemic changes r needed to even make a difference @KarFireDept pic.twitter.com/DcvhvsIhi8
— Beyond Carlton (@beyondcarlton) January 7, 2018
Fire alarm: Understanding Mumbai’s recent fire tragedies – The Hindu – 8 Jan 2018
Fire alarm: Understanding Mumbai’s recent fire tragedies – The Hindu – 8 Jan 2018
Uday Vijayan of Beyond Carlton speaks abt the nonchalance in our society & how Beyond Carlton strives to spread fire safety awareness in our society #CarltonTowers. Read the full article
Mr. R. A. Venkitachalam on Zee Business
Mr. R. A. Venkitachalam on Zee Business
Beyond Carlton’s Venkitachalam on Zee Business discusses how important it is for the government authorities to work together in making every city in India, fire safe. He emphasises the role of each government bodies and also the citizens.
ViewPotential Kamala Mills of Bengaluru -The Quint – 3 Jan 2018
Potential Kamala Mills of Bengaluru -The Quint – 3 Jan 2018
Uday Vijayan discusses the role of Beyond Carlton in advocating fire safety in Bengaluru. He also tells how the PIL filed by the team gave more powers to the fire department.
After the unfortunate Kamala mills tragedy, Karnataka fire and emergency services conducted inspections across the city. In just two days the department found 44 high rise buildings violating fire safety norms. Read the full article
ViewBeyond Carlton’s Uday Vijayan speaks abt how active citizen participation can create pressure points on the authorities&how a PIL that Beyond Carlton filed post the #CarltonTowers fire changed the fire depts role in Karnatakahttps://t.co/pIZoj0BNVo @KarFireDept @IChangeMyCity pic.twitter.com/Vu7ckFKNLZ
— Beyond Carlton (@beyondcarlton) January 4, 2018
Kamala Mills’ Fire Reminds Me of Bengaluru Carlton Horror Which Claimed My Son – News 18 – Jan 9, 2018
Kamala Mills’ Fire Reminds Me of Bengaluru Carlton Horror Which Claimed My Son – News 18 – Jan 9, 2018
As news poured in on the large-scale human tragedy at Mumbai’s upscale Kamala Mills compound, I was filled with sadness, anger and frustration.
Sadness, because as a father, who had also lost a son in a fire accident I could immediately relate to what each of those families was going through.
Anger, because like most fire accidents, this was highly avoidable too, only if the guidelines were followed… Beyond Carlton’s Uday Vijayan
Key points discussed in this article:
- Fire safety violations in Kamala Mills compound
- Who is accountable for this tragedy?
- What do the statistics tell us about the public safety in India?
- Reasons for the mess: Urbanization and challenges, mindset, inefficient local bodies and authorities and archaic laws in India
Beyond Carlton’s Uday Vijayan on CNN IBN ( News 18) shares his anger,frustration and reasons for why fire safety was lax at #KamalaMillshttps://t.co/uQhpHURoUO@Janaagraha1 @KarFireDept @IChangeMyCity @citizenmatters @BPACofficial @BloreConnect @Namma_Bengaluru @ndmaindia
— Beyond Carlton (@beyondcarlton) December 30, 2017
Safety Guidelines to be followed by high-rises, else water and electricity to be cut
Safety Guidelines to be followed by high-rises, else water and electricity to be cut
Times View: Beyond Carlton‘s relentless campaign has led to the high court and fire and emergency services to take cognizance of building violations rampant in Bengaluru. It’s some comfort that the departments has identified buildings that have flouted safety guidelines and plans to cut essential services like water and power if corrective steps aren’t taken. At the same time, it must also ensure that builders and agencies which certify such buildings aren’t spared. They are the bigger culprits who usually go scot-free whenever any tragedy occurs.
Safety Guidelines
Over 1,200 highrises face the prospect of losing their water and electricity connections for violating safety norms… Read more
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Slow pace of fire audits of Bengaluru’s high-rises
Slow pace of fire audits of Bengaluru’s high-rises
Fire audit of high-rises going on at a snail’s pace
The fire audit of high-rises in the State is moving at a snail’s pace despite several strictures by the High Court.
In fact, Home Minister K.J. George sprung into action on Thursday reviewing fire audits of high-rises only after the High Court on September 1 issued directions to speed up the process while hearing a PIL filed by Uday Vijayan of Beyond Carlton.
It was a PIL by Uday Vijayan which led to the 2011 government order vesting the Fire Department with the power to inspect all high-rises with April 2012 deadline. The fire audit is yet to be completed. Read more…
Another related report can be found here…
Earlier news reports related to this topic:
Inadequate fire safety precautions in Bengaluru’s high-rises
Inadequate fire safety precautions in Bengaluru’s high-rises
Is Bengaluru city taking enough fire safety precautions? Apparently not, and you need to read this
Fire exits are often blocked with cardboard boxes and sometimes they are even locked.
Every year India loses over 25,000 people to fire accidents in the country. As per National Crime Records Bureau data, there were 237 fire deaths in Karnataka in 2013, which is about 6% of the total fire-related deaths in the State.
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The judge was angry because Beyond Carlton, an organisation working toward fire safety by those affected by the 2010 Carlton Tower fire in Bengaluru, brought to the notice of the court the poor implementation of fire-safety norms.
Uday Vijayan, President of Beyond Carlton, says, “There is an imbalance between the increase in urbanization and the quality of civic and social infrastructure in India.”
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The guidelines listed in the notification are quite specific.
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Bengaluru is grossly short with respect to infrastructure. The city has only 19 fire stations where as it needs 56. Vijayan, in his letter to the Members of Parliament representing Bengaluru, has chalked out an estimate of the investment that would be needed. “The additional 37 fire stations and physical assets will need Rs 450 crores excluding the routine expenses for maintenance. The operational expenses of all 56 fire stations would be Rs 145 crores per year.” he writes in the letter.
He also says that violations of these rules has resulted in old buildings continuing to be potential tinder boxes and the new buildings which come up not caring to invest adequately in fire safety measures.
“80% fire accidents are caused due to short-circuits. Old buildings are more vulnerable to fire accidents as people don’t maintain the electrical connections in their houses. Similarly, there is a huge challenge with old Government buildings. None of them will even pass the test. We could give up on the old buildings that fail the fire safety test. But, at some point Beyond Carlton would take up the challenge of making old buildings fire-safe.” he told The News Minute. He also adds that
It is up to the citizens to insist on better safety standards.
“There are a fair number of people who don’t follow the fire safety which is because of the over-arching Indian attitude toward public safety in the country. A simple example can be, how a person puts on his helmet the moment he sees a cop and removes it as soon as the cop is out of his way,” he says, “we cannot have the same attitude towards fire-safety.”
Read the complete report here.
High-rises to undergo fire safety preparedness inspection
High-rises to undergo fire safety preparedness inspection
High-rises in city to undergo inspection
The High Court on Monday disposed a PIL that challenged the failure of the government to undertake inspection of high-rise buildings in Bengaluru for their fire safety preparedness. The court asked the government to inspect all the high-rise buildings in the city.
The PIL was filed by Beyond Carlton, a charitable trust formed by the family members of the victims of the fire tragedy in Carlton Towers in 2010. Following an earlier PIL by Beyond Carlton, the state government had given an undertaking to the HC that it would form rules to inspect fire safety in high rises. Read more…
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Implement 2011 fire safety norms: Bangalore HC
Implement 2011 fire safety norms: Bangalore HC
Implement 2011 norms on fire safety: HC bench
Bengaluru: The high court on Tuesday directed the authorities to ensure implementation of the July 7, 2011 notification to avert fire hazards.
Disposing of a PIL filed by Beyond Carlton, a division bench directed the authorities to make a joint inspection to check whether fire-safety norms have been implemented or not. Beyond Carlton organization comprises victims of the Carlton Towers fire tragedy that took place five-and-a-half years ago. Read more…
High-rise buildings in Bangalore lack fire safety
High-rise buildings in Bangalore lack fire safety
Bangalore Mirror
13,214 buildings in Bengaluru lack fire safety
Findings of a state-wide audit of fire safety violations in high-rise buildings has left personnel of the Fire and Emergency Services a worried lot. The audit, done over several months, has revealed that a whopping 14,000-plus buildings in Karnataka violate fire safety norms. Over 13,000 of these are buildings in Bengaluru. Caught…
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In the aftermath of the Carlton Towers fire tragedy in Bengaluru a few years ago, the state government came up with stringent safety guidelines and mandatory implementation of National Building Code 2005 guidelines in high-rise buildings that measure over 15 sq mt.
Read the complete article here…
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