Hospital basements Ill-equipped

CHENNAI: If the inflammable contents of the basement of AMRI Hospitals, Kolkata, were to blame for the tragedy on December 9, the situation in hospitals across the city, seems to be no better. Many applications for renewing fire licenses for private hospitals here have been turned down, citing non-adherence to standards set for maintaining basements. As a senior fire department official pointed out, “Invariably, the basement portion of a high-rise building is not well-ventilated. It is sometimes used like a godown to store chemicals, while some hospitals also have a ward there. In fact, these basements are more unsafe than the other floors because they are poorly ventilated with no outlet for smoke in case of an emergency.”The National Building Code of India, 2005 also specifies that a basement cannot house patients if the floor directly above it has a ward, explained the official. “Further, the basement has to be sprinkled to diffuse any fire,” he added.The absence of access ramps on the premises is another reason why applications are turned down.According to another fire department official, who did not want to be identified, “Even big hospitals don’t always have a ramp because they have multiple elevators to carry patients. What they don’t think of, is an emergency situation.” A senior official said, “Nowadays, some hospitals are being built with a glass structure like IT buildings. From the safety perspective, they are a problem. Ventilation is severely affected.”While no applicant has been denied a license in suburban Chennai, six hospitals in Central Chennai, two in North Chennai, and three in South Chennai have been denied fire licenses, mainly due to these reasons. In many hospitals that have so far received licenses, conditions were imposed on rectifying small deviations in fire safety procedures. Many of these licenses were issued only for three to six months, said a top official.