Mumbai: Over 90 per cent blazes in high-rises triggered by short circuits

The blaze at Sachinam Heights in January left 8 dead. File pic

After a fire triggered by a suspected short circuit at Tardeo's Sachinam Heights society killed nine people in January, the authorities scurried to make electrical audits of buildings mandatory. But they didn't move beyond a few meetings and some paperwork. Sources said the chief electrical inspector submitted a plan to the state government in May but there has been no progress on it so far.

In the latest incident, a fire broke out at Parel's Wadia children's hospital on August 5. Though it was quickly brought under control, the blaze once again underlined the need for electrical audits of buildings. Over 90 per cent of fires in the city start due to faults in the electrical system. Of the 48,434 fire incidents from 2008 to 2018, 32,516 were because of short circuits. In recent memory, short circuits caused the fires at One Avighna Park at Currey Road in October and Hansa Heritage at Kandivli in November last year.

There isn't any system in place to check the electric systems of buildings. "We cannot make electrical audit compulsory as there isn't any provision for it under the Maharashtra Fire Act. The norms of electric audit such as period of auditing, standardisation of equipment will be decided by the electrical inspector of Maharashtra," said a senior official from the Mumbai fire brigade.

The BMC had asked the chief electrical inspector to conduct periodic audits of buildings that are 15 metres or taller, under the Central Electrical Regulations, 2010. Acting on it, the top electrical inspector had in May sent a proposal to the state government to issue a notification on mandatory electrical audits of all such buildings. But the notification is yet to be released.

Hemant Parab, chief of the fire brigade, said, "There was a meeting with CEI [chief electrical inspector] in January where they were ready to conduct an electric audit but we haven't received any information from them till now."

CEI head Dinesh Khonde had told mid-day in May that their plan envisaged inspection of all buildings with four storeys or more for electrical audit every three years with priority on SRA and MHADA structures. The CEI was also to write to the Urban Development Department to make an amendment to the DCR (Development Control Regulations) to make it compulsory to do electrical audits and submit them to the local authority. On Monday, Khonde didn't respond to calls and messages from mid-day.