Major Fire Accident At Coimbatore On 26.04.2013 Morning

Dear All
Major fire broke at Axis bank, located near lakshmi mills, Coimbatore. Source says 4 dead including three female employees and several injured. There was no emergency exit so several people were trapped inside. While two women were injured when they jumped from the second floor, two fire force personnel sustained injuries after they fell down when the water-pipe hose got entangled in their legs, officials said.
Fire broke at early morning 10 AM at the third floor. The fire was reportedly caused by a short circuit in an air-conditioner duct.
Ten to 12 fire tenders, including some from Army and Navy, were used and the fire was doused after2 hrs to bring down the flames. Injured are being shifted to the nearby hospitals for the treatment.
News on Hindu News Paper is attached.
Let’s pray for the soul of deceased.

Dear,
Thanks for sharing the info. Our Fire dept seems like our ''police dept in india cinema movies'' they are exactly coming after the incident and says, NO fire Exit, bla blaa blaa.,, I'm not only blaming them.
Actually it's lack of communication problem between public and government . In Chennai i went through lot complex and malls i noticed that they are not meet requirements even through they hold a certificates for all clearances Ex: They have emergency exit but its not maintained properly they stored the materials infront of doors, Expired Extinguishers, No escape route map posted etc.,,, But the good things is now a days its changing fast more than we expect.

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Our deepest condolences to the victims of this tragedy!
RIP to the departed souls. Thanks for the Sri Devi Bus Driver, No.5 Bus, for immediately helping in the rescue operation by parking the bus in front of the bank. (See image above) Also to thank all the public.

Well, i am not interested in posting funny comments about our FIRE DEPARTMENT TEAM. I blame the Management alone. It seems you have reported the news published in the news paper.

Majority of the building in India don't EMERGENCY EXITS and other FIRE FIGHTING DEVICES.

1) It was the responsibility of the Management to provide SAFE & HEALTHY WORK PLACE for employees

1.1) This includes EMERGENCY EXIT, FIRE EXTINGUISHERS(Fire Category based), FIRE HOSE, FIRE ALARMS, FIRST AID and FIRE SAFETY TRAINED PERSONNEL.

2) EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN must be IMPLEMENTED STRICTLY to avoid any incidents that may cause harm or take lives of the people involved.

3) Employees must be trained on SAFE WORKING STRATEGIES to face/combat such untowards incidents and help themselves from getting potential hazards.

4) For every 30 EMPLOYEES, ONE SAFETY OFFICER must be provided who must carry out routine checks(building/equipment inspection) and ensure RISK are either ELIMINATED or REDUCTED to the MAXIMUM.

Our life is precious. If we don't take care of it, who will take care of it.

With profound regards

Dear Mr. Shaik
Thanks for the inputs.
You have quoted in your reply as below. Could you please let me know this requirement comes from which statue? Is this a legal requirement or not?
"For every 30 EMPLOYEES, ONE SAFETY OFFICER must be provided who must carry out routine checks(building/equipment inspection) and ensure RISK are either ELIMINATED or REDUCTED to the MAXIMUM"

This is as per THE SAFETY LAW applicable in MIDDLE EAST and GULF COUNTRIES. Even it is the same in UK and USA. Dimensions of the workplace are not defined but if the area is large and number of employees are still less, a company need to appoint another SO.
In India, things are totally different.
With profound regards

Dear Mr. Shaik
Thanks for the response.
As I am not aware about the law in the countries which you mentioned, I am not commenting upon it.
But as per my understanding, by increasing the number of safety professionals is not the solution to bring down such mis-happenings. Safety is a Line Management responsibility... The one who is undertaking any job, irrespective of Supervisor or Manager or Top Executive has the responsibility... When this comes in picture things will change...A voluntary movement we can't except in India when comes to safety...Some companies recognize the important and start doing safety... For the rest and for the majority, law enforcing agencies to become more active in India to get change the situations...
Thanks for the participation and try to share your knowledge with us by participating in various threads going on...

The UAE law is:
A. Each industrial establishment employing not less than 150 workers shall appoint a full-time industrial safety officer whose job shall be to supervise the precautionary measures taken against the various risks and the implementation of the provisions of the law in this connection.
B. The industrial safety officer appointed by an establishment employing more than one thousand workers shall be an engineer or a technician qualified in industrial safety and the officer appointed by an establishment employing less than one thousand workers shall be a graduate of an industrial secondary school with experience in industrial safety.
Regards
nandish

I do agree with you. As said earlier, when it comes to safety, every employee is held responsible for executing job safely. When the infrastructure doesn't meets safety standards, its difficult for employees to safeguard themselves from hazards and reduce risk levels.
With regards to NEAR MISS(mis-happenings) It is upto the employees how they behave or react or respond to a particular/specific situation, even if the environment and workplace is safe.
In India, there is NO VALUE FOR LIFE, hence safety has no meaning/value nor given preference, whereas, in majority of the developed countries - NO SAFETY NO WORK. This projects the way we Indians are habitual of executing any task, that too without applying logic and common sense.
With profound regards

I agree with Dilip

But as per my understanding, by increasing the number of safety professionals is not the solution to bring down such mis-happenings. Safety is a Line Management responsibility... The one who is undertaking any job, irrespective of Supervisor or Manager or Top Executive has the responsibility... When this comes in picture things will change...A voluntary movement we can't except in India when comes to safety...Some companies recognize the important and start doing safety... For the rest and for the majority, law enforcing agencies to become more active in India to get change the situations...

As a trainer I used to come across some issues in industries. organizers used to ask me all ways is it enough ? some security / Maintenance personnel will attend class. In my classes I used to invite maximum people from all departments including office side and women to attend class.

In my class(free training class) I used to say it is the responsibility of each and every one to have a basic training or at least basic awareness of the fire accident situation.

And I used to say in the even of emergency no body knows whether trained personnel available in that particular situation. But every body has a need to protect themselves from an accident.

After completion of the class for the live extinguishing I used to encourage women to handle the situation. I proud to say most of the women initially refused to handle the equipment and finally accepted and extinguished effectively.

Live example I tell you, this is 10 years back we have organized one training class in a pharma research lab most of the participants are girls newly joined just Bsc with 20+.

Other day unfortunately / fortunately fire took place at their work place, immediately most of the girls reacted with small 1 kg ABC type equipment and closed the fire effectively and their management surprised. Why I want to project this is Any individual can respond to the situation easily by having at leat training of awareness not raining of fire fighting. At least you can save your life forget about property. Training costs nothing.

Moorthy OVSN

Moorthy OVSN