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The time is now for the nation to up the ante and embrace the very best fire-protection legal guidelines, guidelines, and laws
Charred stays on the nightclub the place a fireplace broke out in Goa. (PTI)
When I wrote the Op-Ed piece “Opinion | Hong Kong Fire Tragedy Shows Why India’s Vertical Boom Needs Urgent Fire Reform” on December 1, 2025, little did I realise that I shall be recounting the horror so quickly by means of one more hearth tragedy in India.
But I write the horror story within the aftermath of not one however two hearth accidents—one a catastrophe which may have induced huge casualty and one other by which scores of people had been burnt to demise resulting from gross negligence.
The latter a bit later. First, in regards to the catastrophe by which a number of human lives had been saved resulting from sheer luck by likelihood.
The Pune Blaze
The intervening evening of December 9-10. Location—my dwelling metropolis Pune. An enormous blaze devastated the Ramesh Dyeing constructing on Laxmi Road within the Sadashiv Peth space—a really dense, slender industrial locality within the Old Pune metropolis space.
There is not any dispute that had this accident occurred within the daytime, there would have been huge casualties. But resulting from sheer luck, a number of individuals had been saved. I’ll return sooner to why there was no casualty. Here are the main points of the newest Pune accident.
One, what occurred. The Pune hearth began in a makeshift storage/warehouse space on the terrace of the Ramesh Dyeing constructing the place huge portions of clothes, baggage and different inventory had been stored underneath a steel or tin shed. It then partially unfold to an adjoining industrial constructing. The decrease store flooring and neighbouring buildings had been at direct danger as a result of this can be a tightly packed, older bazaar space with slender streets and excessive footfall.
Two, why no casualty. Despite the location of the large hearth situated in a dense, crowded, and slender highway, the zero casualty was owing to the next:
Time and place of ignition: The hearth started on the terrace/storage space quite than inside the primary gross sales flooring or avenue‑stage areas, which meant fewer individuals had been bodily current on the precise level of ignition and preliminary fast unfold. This decreased speedy publicity of customers and employees to flames and smoke.
Fast response and heavy deployment: Local individuals shortly alerted the fireplace brigade, which dispatched a number of hearth tenders, tankers and a hydraulic platform nearly concurrently (round ten automobiles in whole, with roughly 50 personnel), permitting crews to encompass the blaze earlier than it travelled downward into the primary store space or laterally into the lane.
Tactical firefighting in a decent city material: Because slender lanes and congested environment made it onerous to achieve the fireplace from the road facet, firefighters created an alternate entry route from the adjoining Shah Brothers constructing by eradicating sheets and attacking the fireplace from above/sideways. This tactic helped cease the fireplace from transferring into occupied industrial areas and close by buildings.
Effective crowd and site visitors administration: Police, residents, and utility employees helped cordon the realm and divert site visitors, which prevented panic stampedes within the already slender lanes and gave firefighters room to function. As a outcome, individuals could possibly be stored at a distance from essentially the most hazardous zones, avoiding crush accidents or smoke‑associated casualties.
Overall, what may have been a monumental catastrophe was averted resulting from alert residents and impeccable fast and coordinated enough response from firefighting group. Make no mistake, future other than above elements saved human lives.
Now, the story of a gory hearth accident by which innocents had been roasted alive. I refuse to name it an accident although. I name it mass homicide of innocents. Why I say so follows sooner.
Goa: A Wilful Case of Mass Murder
Date and Time: Midnight of December 6-7. Venue: Club Birch by Romeo Lane in Arpora, North Goa, 25 km from Panaji.
One, what occurred: In what I rightly dub as “the tinderbox inferno,” the large blaze within the nightclub hearth in Arpora (Birch by Romeo Lane) killed 25 individuals and injured many others. Destiny saved greater than 200 others who had been current contained in the packed nightclub.
Two, what induced the fireplace: There exist diversified accounts of what triggered the blaze. Initial stories quoting the Goa Director General of Police instructed a cylinder blast, however the more moderen official model means that the fireplace possible began from indoor electrical pyrotechnics used throughout a efficiency, which ignited flamable decor resembling palm‑leaf and wood interiors.
Whatever may need ignited the fireplace, the blaze unfold quickly by means of flammable supplies, with smoke filling enclosed areas. Most of the 25 victims died of suffocation within the basement or underground sections, not direct burns, as a result of escape routes had been shortly rendered unusable.
Three, security violations and governance failures: Ab-initio, I fail to fathom how and underneath whose patronage the nightclub was working regardless of the flagrant violation of coastal zone laws and with out hearth security certificates or licence.
I say so as a result of after the monumental tragedy, state officers, together with the chief minister and police, have taken a public stance stating that the membership didn’t adjust to hearth‑security norms and had been working with out obligatory clearances/legitimate hearth NOC, with insufficient exits and emergency preparations.
What a nightmare it has come out to be and the way merciless are the nightclub house owners—who began their enterprise in 2016 and in a brief span of time, expanded from a single café/restaurant in Delhi right into a multi‑outlet hospitality group having presence in 20+ Indian and international cities—is obvious from the post-fire accident revelation.
• Narrow obstructed exists commensurate with the holding crowd density.
• Basement with poor air flow
• Lack of fireplace alarms
• Absence of sprinklers
• Narrow method highway that compelled hearth engines to be parked about 400 meters away from the location, forcing firefighters to make use of hoses over lengthy distances or guide relays, hindering fast containment whereas smoke trapped victims inside.
Four, Mass Murder At Midnight
In view of the foregoing, I say that what occurred at Birch by Romeo Lane in Arpora, Goa, was foretold. It was additionally mass homicide at midnight at an unlawful and unsafe hearth non-compliant venue, revealing deeper regulatory failures, robust indications of negligence and obvious case of collusion between enforcement businesses and house owners of the nightclub.
I additionally posit humbly that whether or not it’s Goa or Kerala, Bihar or Punjab, throughout the size and breadth of the nation, such mass murders proceed to occur and can proceed to recur, given how flagrant are the actions of perpetrators and so lax is the enforcement of the fireplace safety legislation, guidelines and laws within the nation.
Five, Booked And At Large: Such being the intense nature of the crime by the house owners of the nightclub, what punitive measures have been taken in opposition to them?
The FIR in opposition to the house owners and administration of the membership has been registered underneath a number of severe sections of the brand new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). These embrace:
• Section 105 (culpable murder not amounting to homicide),
•Sections 125, 125(a) and 125(b) (acts endangering life or private security of others), and
• Section 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fireplace or flamable matter), all learn with Section 3(5) regarding frequent intention.
Instructively, as soon as hype is over, the tragedy is forgotten and even when the fees are proved underneath all of the sections of BNS, most penalty the accused are anticipated get is 10 years in jail if all sentences run concurrently and 13 years in the event that they run consecutively. In essentially the most unlikely situation, the accused could even be sentenced to life.
There exists the incongruence between the character of the crime, applicability of the penal legislation and certain jail phrases and fines if in any respect the accused are lastly proved responsible.
A living proof is the Uphaar cinema hearth tragedy in 1997 in Delhi the place it took victims’ households about 24-25 years for the primary conviction of the Ansal brothers (house owners), with preliminary judgments in 1997-2007 and a big verdict for proof tampering in 2021, highlighting the prolonged authorized battle, marked by delays and appeals after the tragic hearth. And all of the Ansal brothers served actually as punishment was a prion of a bit of greater than a yr mixed in each circumstances of fireplace and proof tampering.
The FIR lodged at Anjana police station names the chairman of Romeo Lane, Saurabh (Sourabh) Luthra, his brother Gaurav Luthra, different unnamed companions, the membership’s supervisor, occasion organisers, and different managing employees as accused.
But the travesty is inside 5 hours of the incidence of the tragedy, Luthra brothers fled to Thailand on an IndiGo aircraft.
Six, Accused Play the Victim Card
The Luthra brothers have additionally claimed to be “victims” within the hearth tragedy and argued that felony legal responsibility can’t be pinned on them since they weren’t current on the nightclub when the fireplace erupted.
A Tale of Four Tales
Notwithstanding the lowering incidences and fatalities from hearth accidents reported by NCRB, make no mistake: Various estimates recommend that Bharat is among the many main nations of the world as regards hearth accidents and has about 20 per cent of world fatalities from such accidents.
An in depth enumeration of lethal hearth accidents is past the scope of this piece, however I inform beneath the story of 4 tales in three centuries which give attention to the tales of classes unlearnt and set up the case of why the ordeals of Bharatiyas should finish now.
Tale 1: Surat 1837: At 5pm on April 24, some woodwork caught hearth on the home of one of many main Parsis in Machhalipith neighbourhood. The hearth shortly unfold to the densely packed neighbouring homes, which had timber frames and wood eaves overhanging the slender streets. The blaze was lastly managed on the morning on April 26 nevertheless it had destroyed 9,373 homes in a 16-km radius space, about three-quarters (75 per cent) of the town, and killed greater than 500 individuals.
Tale 2: Bombay 1944: As reported by Times of India, in 1944, explosions of the freighter SS Fort Stikine killed round 800 individuals and 66 fire-fighters in two big hearth explosions that set hearth to the encompassing space. The freighter was carrying cotton bales, gold, and ammunition, which additionally had almost 1,400 tons of explosives. This large-scale destruction left almost 80,000 individuals homeless and killed 71 fire-fighters within the aftermath.
Tale 3: Haryana 1995: In the worst hearth accident since independence, on December 23, 1995, over 500 individuals—largely kids and their dad and mom—had been killed and over 300 injured at Rajiv Marriage Palace, a non-public marriage corridor in Dabwali in Haryana’s Sirsa district, through the Annual Day perform of DAV School.
Tale 4: Tamil Nadu 2001: In the wee hours of August 6, 2001, on the Moideen Badusha dargah in Ramnathpura district of Tamil Nadu, 27 mentally ailing individuals (largely ladies and youngsters) had been roasted alive in an enormous hearth. They couldn’t be saved as a result of they had been all chained.
I can go on enumerating tons of of tales of how huge fires have killed and maimed lakhs of Bharatiyas and destroyed enumerable variety of properties. Such gory accidents have occurred in each state, metropolis, city and even village. It is time now to clamp on their happenings.
Time to End the Ordeal
In my Op-Ed piece in News18 dated ten days in the past on December 1, I’ve delved deeper into, amongst others issues, the legislation, code, guidelines, and laws associated to fireplace security, together with the multiple-level (Centre, state, municipal and improvement our bodies) accountability with precise accountability of none.
Our fire-safety norms are significantly weaker than EU, UK, USA, and Japan. This doesn’t bode nicely for a rustic that aspires to be a developed nation.
Our fire-safety requirements are merely perspective and never initiative-taking and no matter provisions exist are misplaced on the enforcement finish.
There exists a substantive diploma of collusion in enforcement, resulting in alarming stage of fireplace non-compliant buildings (residential, industrial, hospitals, colleges) and companies of every type.
For larger particulars in how Bharat falters at crucial fire-safety measures, discerning readers can learn my earlier piece. Suffice to say right here that the time is now for the nation to up the ante and embrace the very best fire-protection legal guidelines, guidelines, and laws. And the start have to be made with bringing “Fire Safety” from the State List to the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Bharat now wants uniform international greatest practices, statute and codes of fireplace security together with uniform enforcement with out worry or favour. The time begins now.
The writer is a multidisciplinary thought chief with Action Bias, India-based worldwide influence marketing consultant, and eager watcher of adjusting nationwide and worldwide eventualities. He works as president, advisory providers of consulting firm BARSYL. Views expressed within the above piece are private and solely these of the writer. They don’t essentially replicate News18’s views.
Click right here so as to add News18 as your most well-liked information supply on Google. December 11, 2025, 16:00 IST
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