Ranganathan Street continues to be a death-trap

CHENNAI: Ranganathan Street in T Nagar may just be a walk-in death trap for the thousands of shoppers who go there every day. Stores along the busy street have failed to implement fire safety guidelines, despite the major fire that broke out in one of the multi-storeyed shops here in September 2008. The fire hazard is not only a threat to shoppers who throng the low-priced stores, but also to those who reside nearby. In all, no lesson has been learnt by either officials or the shopkeepers from the 2008 fire.Part of the reason behind this, may be the fact that the fire had occurred in the wee hours of the morning, on the upper floors of Saravana Stores, on September 1, 2008. It had taken three fire engines and over 30 water tankers over 10 hours to extinguish the fire along the narrow road. There had been no loss of life then, but imagine how devastating it could have been if the fire had occurred when shoppers had actually been inside the store.“Nothing has changed here. The fire happened, it was extinguished and life has gone on as usual. Hundreds would have been undoubtedly killed if that fire had happened in the evening. Thousands would have undoubtedly been injured in the inevitable stampede,” says Joseph, a street vendor on Ranganathan Street.“It is only because there were no casualties that the government has not forced them to take any proper measures. If a hundred people had died that day, things would have worked out differently. What if it happens again?” he asks.It is not just the stores and the shoppers who are at peril. “If there is a fire on Ranganathan Street, there is the real risk of it spreading to nearby residential streets because of the winds. It is a fundamental requirement that has been overlooked,” says V S Jayaraman, secretary of the residents’ welfare association on nearby Motilal Street.Officials of the Fire and rescue Service Department had issued show-cause notices to 38 large stores along the narrow strip. But not one reply has been received. They say some stores that span five or six storeys bought two or three fire extinguishers as a fire safety measure.“It is all a big joke if you look at it from outside,” says a fire safety official to City Express. “But what can we do? We do not have the authority to seal these buildings. That’s the prerogative of the civic bodies,” said the official, adding that certain government agencies were unable to do anything thanks to the financial clout of the massive stores on the street.But the residents and customers are in no mood to buy this. “Officials never do anything. They always pass the buck to another department. Right now, we have had enough. We don’t care who has to do it. We just want fire safety measures taken seriously and put in place on Ranganathan Street. Period,” says Jayaraman. Till then, Rangananthan Street will remain a sign post of the standards of fire safety implementation in the city.