Kolkata, Aug 21 (IANS) After two successive fire incidents at two hotels in West Bengal, first at Tarapith in Birbhum district and second on Mirza Ghalib Street in Central Kolkata, killing 18 people (nine in each case), the West Bengal Fire Services Department had decided to frame strict standard operating procedure (SOP) on exit door maintenance for all hotels, lodges and guesthouses in the state.

A preliminary blueprint has been prepared, and once the new guidelines regarding the exit doors are in place, it will be mandatory for hospitality entities to adhere to such guidelines, and there will be regular checks to ensure that the new norms are followed diligently, a senior officer from the Fire Services Department said.

Detailing some of these new SOPs, the official said that the first and foremost priority will be that under all circumstances exit doors should be kept unlocked 24/7, and at the same time the passages leading to the exit doors should never be encroached by any item.

“At the same time, exit doors should be of metal-made grill-gate structures to ensure easy exhaustion of smoke emitted in case of fire. Under no circumstance should the exit doors be of inflammable items like wood, plywood or board,” the department official said.

The second important guideline, according to him, is that the hotels, lodges and guesthouses will also be required to have proper signage and trained personnel for emergency exit doors.

“It will be mandatory for the hospitality entities to employ trained personnel to evacuate guests to a safe place in case of an emergency. It will also be mandatory for the hotel authorities to update the dos and don’ts for the boarders in case of an emergency like fire at the time of check-in,” the State Fire Services Department official said.

The third priority point will be that the doors to the roof of the hotel building should also be kept unlocked 24/7 and such doors should also be metal-made grill-gate structures. At the same time, the staircases leading to the roofs of the hotel buildings should always be kept free of encroachment by any item.

“This will ensure that in case of any fire emergency, the guests would be able to quickly move to the roofs and stay there safely till the time they are evacuated,” the department official said.

According to him, in both the Tarapith and Kolkata hotel fire incidents, the inadequate exit options had been identified as the major reason for such a high death toll. “So in the new SOP we have decided to specially emphasise this aspect for future precautions,” the official added.

–IANS

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