Fire safety audit to be conducted around Padma temple

Thiruvananthapuram: In the wake of a major fire outbreak in the capital on Sunday, the fire and rescue department will conduct a fire safety audit around the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple.
Director general of fire and rescue department A Hemachandran has given instructions to conduct the audit at the earliest. "We cannot afford to such incidents in future.So the audit will be conducted in the core area around the temple to identify such vulnerabilities and take necessary corrective measures," Hemachandran said.
This is the third instance in the near future when fire broke out near the temple, which is one of the high security areas in the capital. Earlier, the fire and rescue department had issued a warning to the state government about the fire vulnerability of government secretariat.
The department had conducted fire audit in the secretariat building and the then fire department chief Loknath Behera had written to the government as the audit report had found that there were not even minimum safety measures for fire rescue in place. The report had asked for immediately establishing a mini fire station or an outpost within the secretariat compound in addition to parking a mini fire tender on the premises as being done in all other secretariats.
According to an earlier audit report of the fire department, 80% of the fire occurs in the state due to electrical short circuit, and in the secretariat, all the wirings are exposed without being concealed. Earlier, two major fire broke out in 2012 April and 2014 November in Chalai, which had brought the East Fort and Chalai under the category of highly vulnerable to fire.
While Jacob Thomas was chief of the department, he had identified a list of places which are vulnerable to fire in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. The list of places which are vulnerable to fire in the capital includes government secretariat, Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and Chalai market. In Kochi, the department had identified Jew Street in Fort Kochi and Broadway in Ernakulam, where the tourists flock to. The department had also conducted a safety audit in LuLu mall in Edappally.
In Kozhikode, the department had conducted a detailed fire safety audit in SM Street, where a major incident of fire had occurred recently. The figures with the fire and rescue department show that the highest number of fire mishaps have occurred in the SM Street in Kozhikode. Since 2011, there have been 59 incidents of minor and major fire mishaps in SM Street. In 2014 alone, there were 31 cases reported.