City specific fire safety blueprint launched

'Beyond Carlton,' claimed to be the first citizen led initiative on fire safety, today launched a city specific fire safety blueprint.

Uday Vijayan said he started the initiative after his 23-year-old son perished in 2010 in a fire at Carlton Tower here, which killed nine people.

Now the organisation has come up with the five-year Blueprint, which focuses on efficient execution of known solutions, he said, adding it has set a goalof zero deaths due to fire accidents by year 2023.

"It takes a four-pronged strategy: Quantified five-year goals that arepractical and achievable; an actionable roadmap with quarterlymilestones, a single owner responsible for execution; and transparent,quarterly performance data against milestones,"he told reporters.
 

The Blueprint has been prepared in consultation with the Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services and Janaagraha and is supported by Bain Consulting, Vijayan said.

He said the plan takes a collaborative approach between the government and key stakeholders,including building owners/ occupiers, the firebrigade, municipal administration, the industry and other civic organisations.

Speaking about the need for a city-specific fire safety blueprint, he said that with over 17,500 people dying every year due to fires in India, "we believe that fire safety is a burning issue."

"Thoughsolutions to fire safety are well known and available, there is a need for a pathway to implementing the solutions that needs to be charted."

"That pathway is a city-specific Fire Safety Blueprint which is being launched today," he said.