Incident Brief Detail of surat Fire incident

On 24 May 2019, a fire occurred at a coaching center (commercial

complex) in Sarthana area of Surat in the Gujarat state of India
Twenty-two students died and others were injured in an academic
coaching center Owner of the Institute, Builder and two officials
from Gujarat Fire Safety Department (Fire service Gujarat) were
arrested.

How the fire started (Surat Fire Incident)

 Fire Started with Short Circuit at Ground Floor.
 Then Fire Spread to other floors and Coaching Centre which
was at Terrace!

List of Lapses and Learnings (Surat fire Incident)

Lapses in surat fire
Learning’s
incident

Lack of Passive Fire Protection. Passive Fire

The spread of Fire from
Protection will stop the spread of fire and
Ground Floor to Terrace
smoke.

Interior coatings, internal walls, etc are

Flammable materials are
spreading the fire very fast. Fire Load Must
hugely used like Flushes and
be calculated and checked on regular
Tires as the seat
intervals

Fire Tender was 45 minutes At least 2 hours of fire fighting capacity must
away and Hydraulic be available with every commercial and
ladder reached in 45 minutes industrial client.

Ceiling Height was just 5 feet. National Building Code 2016 must be
 followed for fire safety compliance.

Smoke is more dangerous than fire. Smoke

16 students died due to
Extraction System, Windows and Maintaining
asphyxiation (Smoke)
Air Changes per Hour is critical

Makeshift Dome was the build Structure, Wall, Floor, and Roof shall be as
on the terrace where the per National Building Code-2016 which
actual tragedy happened guides on fire rating of each.

Continuous running loads will have a fire

Short Circuit happened onAir
hazard. Thermography and electrical audits
Conditioner Circuit
will help the client to improve every time.

Inadequate exit, staircase could have been

the reason. Based on each floor occupant
3 died as they jumped off the
load, travel distance, number of exits must
terrace of the building.
be calculated in a scientific manner rather
then having one or two staircases.

The requirement of Safety Equipment and

No Safety Equipment in the
Training & Awareness on how to use might
building
have been saved many lives.

Heavy traffic and people

If not able to extend support, others should
taking videos at the incident
not hamper the rescue team.
site

Adherence to statutory will not only safe

2 Floors were built without clients from legal battle but it is for Personnel
permission and Property Safety. In the end, it has
business/commercial benefits.

All high rise buildings and industrial

There was no audit conducted
complexes must conduct the third-party audit
for building.
every two years.

Wooden Staircase used. Choice of the material of construction and its

 thickness matters.

Maintaining the equipment/facility “ready to

Another Staircase was locked use” is very critical which over a period of
time clients ignore.

The illegal structure was Having NOC or getting the permission to

regularized by the authorities operate does not mean Premises is Safe or
by accepting the impact fee fool-proof.

Officials concerned did not

conduct a physical inspection
There are loopholes in the system and lack of
of the building before
safety awareness among official sometime
approving the proposal of the
builder.

In haste of getting approval, deviations and

Client declaration was false false reporting will be costly to the client and
and Engineer Approval was it will be an issue of integrity for concern
wrong stakeholders who support the client on wrong
grounds.

A couple of months back

Learning from a previous or similar incident
similar incident happens in
is very important to improve the safety
the same area in tuition
standards of each premise.
center where two people died

Fire Tender did not bring the The emergency Team must equip with the
safety net which could have right equipment, items, and tools. Based on
saved a few more lives the incident it shall be mobilized.

Mr. Ketan Jorawadia, 23 old By keeping self-safety in mind, to the extent

living near the incident site possible support shall be extended which
saved at least 10 lives bring life long impacting result