Blaze in Jubilee Hall raises safety concern

A fire broke out on the roof of the historic Jubilee Hall on Sunday minutes after UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee left the venue after addressing Congress MLAs and MPs.

The fire exposed the poor fire safety measures of the heritage building with sources pointing out there are no smoke detectors or fire alarms in place.

Taking a serious note of the incident, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has ordered a probe into the incident.

In the wake of the fire accident in the historic Jubilee Hall on Sunday, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy appointed senior IAS officer Ajay Mishra to head the investigation and submit a report. He also asked protocol officer Ramana Reddy to submit a report on the mishap.

A short circuit was said to be the cause of the fire and the 30-year-old air conditioning plant was completely gutted.

Smoke from the roof was noticed around noon and electrical engineers immediately cut off power supply to the building which houses the Legislative Council and is also used for hosting visiting dignitaries.

The fire, which started from the rooftop air conditioning plant, was put off within half an hour with the help of fire personnel and vehicles standing by and a few more which joined them soon.

While there were some fluctuations while Mr Mukherjee’s meeting was underway, the smoke was noticed later from outside and fire personnel were alerted. A standby vehicle and fire personnel from the

Voltage was fluctuating during Pranab’s meeting

Mughalpura fire station were assisted by fire tenders and personnel from Musheerabad, Film Nagar, Chandulal Baradari, Malakpet and a snorkel vehicle from the Secunderabad fire station.

Legislative affairs minister D. Sridhar Babu, some MLAs and senior police officials who were present after the meeting stayed around, trying to monitor the operations.

Meanwhile, Legislative Council chairman A. Chakrapani said that he would seek a report from the archaeology department regarding the damage to the building and take up repair works as per its recommendations.

Other than a few fire extinguishers, the building doesn’t have prescribed fire safety measures like a water tank on the roof, water pumps, hose reels, automatic smoke detecting system and sprinklers etc.

Though the government had sanctioned a fire station and a vehicle on the premises, nothing has been done so far.