Fire breaks out at rooftop cafe in Jaipur, no injuries
ACCORDING TO THE OFFICIAL DATA OF THE JAIPUR MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, NO ROOFTOP CAFE IN THE CITY HAS TAKEN FIRE NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS
JAIPUR: A rooftop cafe near Rambagh circle in Jaipur caught fire around 6am on Friday after a cooking gas cylinder burst in the premises. The cafe, situated on the fifth floor of the building, did not have a no objection certificate (NOC) for fire safety, and lacked equipment to extinguish the fire, said officials.
Fire tenders from three fire stations were rushed to the spot in order to put out the fire.
No lives were lost in the incident, said officials.
Even as the fire department has specified that opening rooftop cafes without a fire NOC is illegal, such cafes were seen to be mushrooming around the city, said fire officials.
Jagdish Phulwariya, chief fire safety officer, JMC said that a notice will be issued to the cafe and further actions will be taken if the NOC is not taken i n t he specified i nterval of time.
As per the official data of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation, no rooftop cafe in the city has taken fire NOC in the last two years.
Pr o p e r h o s e p i p e s wi t h underground tanks, smoke detectors, water sprinklers, fire alarms along with exit doors and proper exit plan to let people exit in case of an emergency is required in order to approve the commercial complex for having fire safety measures in place. As per the officials, none of the arrangements were found in place at the rooftop cafe where the fire broke out.
Several such rooftop cafes have opened on top of buildings beyond 32 metres of height -- the fire department does not have a hydraulic ladder that extends beyond 32 metres of length in case of a rescue operation in such buildings.
Last year, 194 notices were issued to commercial complexes, including roof top lounges which are running without proper documents and have no fire safety measures in place. Several notices were also served to the rooftop cafes this year; however the fire safety officials said that due to the lack of enactment of fire safety and prevention act, the power to seize buildings is not vested in them.
Presently, fire safety and prevention act is not implemented in Rajasthan, due to which even as the fire officials can issue notices to the fire NOC defaulters, they cannot seize the buildings.
The process to seize the buildings takes a longer time where the order for the action can come only from the Zone’s Deputy Commissioner’s office and not the fire office.