“Apartments are at greater risk for fire than firecracker factories”

Cheryl Rebello of Beyond Carlton explains how to make your apartment fire-safe, and how you can sign up for the group's free fire-risk assessment for apartments

Did you know that apartments are at higher risk of fire hazard than factories producing combustible materials like firecrackers? Twenty nine percent higher risk, to be precise. And most of us live in apartment complexes. The fire tragedy at Carlton Towers nine years ago, brought to the forefront the perils of fire in high rise buildings dotting the Bengaluru skyline.

To mark the ninth anniversary, Beyond Carlton, a group of citizens working towards fire safety in Bangalore, has partnered with the Bangalore Apartments Federation (BAF) to do a fire risk assessment of registered apartments in the city absolutely free. Cheryl Rebello of Beyond Carlton sat down for a chat on Citizens Live to tell us more about the initiative.

“We have a checklist to assess the fire-readiness of these apartments – the general area, the approach roads for fire services, fire hydrants, a physical map, among others. It takes less than 30 minutes to make this assessment of how safe your building is from a fire. Of course, it does take more time and some money to implement and follow our recommendations,” she says.

Cheryl says it is imperative we understand the risks of a fire in city like Bengaluru, because “We, for all practical purposes, are the first responders. So we need to know what to do during a fire, so that nobody loses a life because of it”

The process is fairly simple. Register yourself at https://baf.org.in/ to have Beyond Carlton team run a fire risk assessment, or write to the group directly at info@beyondcarlton.org .

Citizen Matters is the media partner for the initiative.

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