{"id":41058,"date":"2024-05-29T01:20:40","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=41058"},"modified":"2025-10-11T13:04:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T07:34:32","slug":"fire-safety-regulations-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/fire-safety-regulations-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Safety Regulations in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Background<\/li>\n<li>Fire Safety Regulations in India<\/li>\n<li>About the National Building Code<\/li>\n<li>Challenges Associated with Fire Safety in India<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Background<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The recent fire tragedies at a gaming zone in Gujarat\u2019s Rajkot and a children\u2019s hospital in Delhi have claimed the lives of at least 40 people in a span of 24 hours.<\/li>\n<li>This has shifted the spotlight on fire safety regulations and the need for stringent enforcement of safety measures, particularly in buildings vulnerable to man-made disasters.<\/li>\n<li>According to the latest <strong>Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) Report<\/strong>, released by the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ncrb-report\/\" target=\"_blank\">National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB)<\/a>, <strong>as many as 7,435 people were killed in over 7,500 fire accidents in 2022<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Fire Safety Regulations in India<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Published in 1970, the <strong>National Building Code<\/strong> (NBC) is India&#8217;s central standard for fire safety. It was last updated in 2016.<\/li>\n<li>It provides detailed guidelines for general construction, maintenance, and fire safety of buildings.<\/li>\n<li>State governments are required to incorporate NBC recommendations into local building bylaws, as <strong>fire services are a state subject<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The &#8216;<strong>Model Building Bye Laws 2016<\/strong>&#8216; guide states and urban areas in drafting building bylaws.<\/li>\n<li>Apart from that, the <strong>National Disaster Management Authority <\/strong>(NDMA) also provides guidelines on fire safety in homes, schools, and hospitals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About the National Building Code<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The National Building Code outlines measures to ensure fire safety, focusing on measures that can be reasonably achieved.<\/li>\n<li>It defines fire zones, such as residential areas and educational institutions, to prevent industrial and hazardous structures from coexisting with residential, institutional, and business buildings.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Code also categorizes buildings into nine groups based on occupancy, such as hotels, hospitals, and assembly buildings<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It emphasizes the use of non-combustible materials and minimum 120-minute rating for internal walls in staircase enclosures.<\/li>\n<li>The Code also outlines maximum height, floor area ratio, open spaces, and fire-resistant openings.<\/li>\n<li>The Code emphasizes the importance of flame-retardant electrical installation, with medium and low voltage wiring in separate shafts and false ceilings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>All metallic items should be bonded to the earthing system<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>An emergency power-supplying distribution system is recommended for critical requirements, including exit signage, lighting, fire alarm systems, and public address systems.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Code also recommends technologies for fire protection<\/strong>, such as automatic fire detection systems, down-comer pipelines, sprinklers, fireman&#8217;s lifts, fire barriers, and escape routes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Challenges Associated with Fire Safety in India<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fire safety rules in all states, including the National Building Code (NBC), are often ignored due to the absence of uniform safety legislation and the NBC being a &#8220;recommendatory document.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Even mandatory certifications are not complied with. Fire safety audits are underutilized due to the failure of local bodies to conduct regular checks and enforce compliance.<\/li>\n<li>Shortage of staff exacerbates the issue, leading to tragic loss of lives in fires like the Rajkot game zone and Delhi hospital fires.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) highlights the need for community resilience and compliance with safety norms<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1. What is the role of the National Institute of Disaster Management?<\/h3>\n<p>NIDM is primarily responsible for the training and capacity development programs for managing natural disasters in India.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2. Why Oxygen is not used in Fire Extinguishers?<\/h3>\n<p>Fire needs oxygen to live. Adding more oxygen would just cause the fire to grow to a rather large size. The co2 replaces the oxygen thus extinguishing the fire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/fire-safety-rules-rajkot-delhi-gujarat-challenge-hurdle-explain-failure-monitor-regulations\/article68218102.ece#:~:text=What%20fire%20safety%20rules%20say,public%20address%20system%20for%20emergencies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">What are fire safety rules, and why are there compliance challenges? | Explained<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Building Code (NBC) is India&#8217;s central standard for fire safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}