Fire forensic dept need of the hour, says officer

LUCKNOW : The tragic loss of lives in two incidents of fire in Lucknow has again brought the focus on ‘poor adherence’ to fire safety norms in commercial places and the need for post-fire investigations by a specialised agency.

At present, UP does not have any specialised agency to investigate incidents of fire. In fact, there is no fire forensic department in almost all the states. Post-fire investigations are no mean job. Most of the reasons or probable causes of fire are damaged/lost in the blaze. In such a scenario, an expert agency is needed to probe such incidents. Urgency for such an agency could be gauged by the fact that last year (Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2017) 8,417 incidents of fire were reported from the urban parts of UP. During the same period, 15,884 fire incidents were reported from the rural parts of the state in which 104 human lives were lost and 4,682 cattle were also reported dead.

“In all developed nations there is a separate fire forensic department that carries out post-fire investigations to ascertain reasons behind the incident,” said JK Singh, joint director, UP fire services. “It is high time UP must also have a fire forensic department, a specialised agency to probe major incidents of fire,” asserted Singh. At the central level, the country has Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, and Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety, New Delhi, under the ministry of defence. The fire services headquarter at Indira Bhawan in Lucknow will also carry out a detailed probe into the Charbagh tragedy and submit the report to the state government with recommendations to prevent such incidents in future.