The 2010 fire at Carlton Towers on Old Airport Road claimed nine lives and left 70 injured, but no one has been brought to book yet.
Uday Vijayan, who lost his 22-year-old son Akhil in the fire, says, “From what we know, the trial is yet to start. We have not received any other update yet.”
Vijayan is the managing trustee and president of Beyond Carlton, a group that actively campaigns for fire safety. In the Carlton Towers fire, people trapped in the eight-floor building could not be saved as the setback in the building was too narrow for the fire tenders to enter, and the emergency exit had been locked.
About the fire tragedy at Devarachikkanahalli on Tuesday, he says the practice of people grilling up their balconies is ill-informed and can cost them their lives.
“We Indians believe we won’t die in a fire accident until it actually happens. Many believe the chances of robbery are higher than a fire breaking out at home, hence the grilles. This is a behavioural issue that needs to change,” he says. His organisation has also been trying to ensure fire safety officials are held accountable.
Road width rule
Any building taller than 15 metres is considered a high-rise and must follow both the National Building
Code (NBC) and a notification issued by the Karnataka home secretariat, says K M Sai Apabharana, advocate and member of Beyond Carlton.
According to the NBC, a multi-storey building can’t be built on a road less than 12 metres wide.
The entrance of a high-rise should at least be six metres wide, and the building is required to have adequate setbacks on all sides. “Many of these rules are not followed by buildings with three or four storeys. The apartment where the fire accident occurred on Tuesday was one such apartment complex,” says Prashanth Nandiprasad, proprietor, Etagi Design Collaborative.
The narrow roads both in the city and on the outskirts are not built to provide easy accessibility for fire engines and ambulances, he observes.
“As there is a huge market for smaller apartment complexes, there are lots of players and very little accountability,” he told Metrolife.
Corruption reigns
Another prominent builder agrees. “Right now, there is a severe lack of accountability. Anybody with a piece of land and money can build an apartment complex. All they need to do is grease the hands of a few BBMP officials, and they get exemption from all rules,” he says.
He says the Fire and Emergency Services department and BBMP town planning and revenue departments can prevent accidents and deaths if they do their duty honestly.
Venkatachalapathy, BBMP joint commissioner, revenue, says officials enforce rules as mandated, but that is not in evidence anywhere.
Case status
“The case is slowly moving forward, and the pandemic and the backlog of cases have added to the delay. The charges have not been framed yet,” says Apabharana. The next hearing is slated for October 18.
Burnt alive
An 82-year-old woman and her 59-year-old daughter were burnt alive in a fire at their flat in Devarachikkanahalli on Tuesday evening. The fire tenders initially had trouble saving the two women due to the narrow road leading up to the apartment complex. “Any apartment or group housing building needs to abide by the road width rules. If it doesn’t, it becomes an illegal building,” a former BBMP official, town planning, tells Metrolife. Buildings across the city come up on narrower roads, and it is clear the BBMP officials are not enforcing the rule.