The portents for a potential major fire disaster were visible all over Surat. Especially with the city’s woefully ill-equipped fire service. The fire tenders that reached the Takshashila Arcade on May 24 to put out the fire in a coaching class situated in the roof of the building, had ladders that could only go up to 35 metres. Many of the 22 teenagers who died in the fire that day lost their lives when they jumped off the roof in panic. The fire personnel did not even have nets to catch them. As irony would have it, the city corporation…
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