Useless safety measures
The report on the devastating fire on the tenth floor of an apartment in the Japan Garden city housing project, published in most dailies on 13 February; depicts the criminal callousness on the part of the housing complex management. In order of priority, the main reasons that caused this disaster, and the loss of six lives as reported can be summed up in the following points.
a) The door of the roof was locked, and the residents could not go to the roof! They would not have died by inhalation of CO2 and other combustion gases, if they could reach the open roof, which they wanted to !
b) There were no functioning fire extinguishers, or sand or water buckets available for stopping the fire when it started.
c) It appears that the pump meant for fire fighting could not be operated.
Finally, and most criminal is ignoring the fire service department's concerns about the fire safety measures of the buildings by the project authorities as reported in some dailies. The management of the housing complex should be prosecuted for criminal negligence and involuntary manslaughter. This will make all building authorities sit up and take notice!
As a curiosity, did the housing complex authorities take permission from the Japanese Embassy for using the word 'Japan' in naming the housing complex?
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