Jaideep Shenoy/The Hindu

Mangalore, Jul 7: A fire accident that recently ravaged the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) vegetable complex at Jayanagar has prompted the Fire and Emergency Services Department to take up fire safety audit of government buildings across the State. The audit process, which started recently, will be completed within a month, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Fire and Emergency Services) B. Dayananda has said.

Mr. Dayananda told The Hindu that the department had taken note of the shortcomings in the fire safety aspects at the BBMP complex and decided to carry out a comprehensive fire safety audit of government buildings in the State. “While the department does carry out regular audit, this time we have decided to go in to the details,” he said. Once the audit is completed, the department would issue fire advisories to the heads of respective departments to incorporate the safety measures as suggested by the advisory, he said. Mr. Dayananda said that there was a tendency among the officials to store or dump unwanted material along the staircase. The audit would look in to the positioning of fire extinguishers in the buildings, check them for operational aspects and advice the authorities on changes to be made thereof, he said.

He said that the audit could suggest structural changes in buildings, if necessary, to enable easy fire fighting in case of fire accidents. The department, on request from private building owners, would carry out similar audit for them against a fee, he said.