No power safety audit in Surat buildings
At least, 10 incidents of fire are reported in the city in a week due to electrical short circuit. In such cases, fire starts after a spark in the circuit or the mains in the electricity metre box. The smoke emanating out of such fire is more dangerous than the fire itself, because it spreads very fast with high amount of toxic gases like carbon monoxide that can choke anyone to death within seconds. Fire brigade officials said majority of the incidents takes place due to the faulty electric wiring, low-grade cables unable to withstand during the fire situation, excessive load shedding and overloading. Licensed electrical safety auditor, Dushyant Parikh told media: “Barring few public and private sector banks and corporates, electrical safety audit is not done in the commercial and residential apartments in the city. Majority of the fire incidents takes place due to low-capacity electrical wiring and overloading. The regular electrical audit could save previous lives” According to Parikh, the builders and architects are to be blamed for the fire disasters in the city. The builder has to complete the project on bear minimum cost and therefore they hire the electrical contractor, who in turn uses low-grade fitting of cables. Secondly, the architects insist their clients to change the electrical fittings to earn his extra profit. In doing so, the architects are not checking the load in the electricity metre mains and provide connections and points for everything. When the load increases due to excess usage of electrical appliances, fire is the end result. Chief fire officer Vasant Parekh said, “Like structural stability, audit of fire safety, elevator certificate and electrical safety audit should be made mandatory for preventing fire incidents. Majority of the fire takes place due to electric short-circuit, which indicates overloading or usage of low-capacity wires”
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