Looking into the specific lapses that led to this avoidable tragedy is certainly important. But there also needs to be a larger reckoning with the lack of fire safety compliance in the country
The fire that broke out on Saturday night at a nightclub in Goa’s Arpora village, and claimed 25 lives, was a tragedy foretold. Lacking the requisite permissions and licences, including a no-objection certificate from the fire department, the alleged illegalities at the Arpora establishment had already been flagged multiple times, including by the village panchayat. There were several glaring lapses in fire safety compliance as well: Fundamental safety infrastructure was missing, including proper exits through which people could escape. The basement, which housed the kitchen, lacked adequate ventilation. Flammable material, including bamboo, appears to have been used in the furnishings and decor. The people inside were, in other words, trapped in what was a virtual tinderbox.
This latest conflagration fits a longer and larger dismal pattern of callousness and shocking disregard of fire safety laws. This has led to other fire disasters in recent memory, including the one that broke out in a Jaipur hospital in October, resulting in six deaths, and the blazes that broke out, within 12 hours of each other, at a paediatric hospital in Delhi and a gaming centre in Rajkot in June last year, resulting in several fatalities. Clearly, there is a yawning chasm between fire safety rules and guidelines, as found in the National Building Code and various state laws, and their enforcement on the ground in an ecosystem where such rules are often flouted in the interest of growth and expansion. As high-rises and commercial establishments like restaurants, pubs, shopping malls and clubs mushroom across cities and towns, especially in densely populated metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai and in tourist destinations like Goa, this tendency to cut corners has repeatedly led to disaster — be it the inferno that engulfed two establishments in Mumbai’s Kamala Mills in 2017 and the hotel fire in Delhi’s Karol Bagh in 2019 or the one in Arpora on Saturday.
