How would you assess Delhi’s overall fire-safety preparedness? What are the biggest risks?

Delhi has varied fire risks because of its geography and construction. Old Delhi, for instance, has narrow, congested lanes, interconnected buildings and tangled overhead wires, making access difficult.

Delhi’s building by-laws were introduced in 1957 and revised in 1983 and 2016, but much of the city has not developed in accordance with them. The city has more than 1,000 unauthorised colonies and around 80% of it is unplanned.

Fire prevention and preparedness have not kept pace with this development. The by-laws and Fire Services infrastructure have not expanded sufficiently, leaving a wide gap in prevention, applicability and enforcement. Our preparedness is therefore only average and not up to the mark for the Capital.

Despite regulations and inspections, violations continue. Where is the biggest gap?

Around 80% of construction in Delhi is unplanned. Such building plans often never reach the Municipal Corporation of Delhi or the building authority and, consequently, do not come to the Fire Department for a Fire Safety Certificate (FSC) or Fire No Objection Certificate.

Only about 5% of buildings in Delhi have Occupancy Certificates. The primary responsibility lies with the building authority to ensure that construction and occupation are in accordance with approved plans.

Under Rule 34, the Fire Department inspects specified categories of buildings and ensures compliance with fire-safety provisions. But once a building is constructed, the prescribed requirements have to be followed.

Fire safety starts with the fundamentals — structural safety, staircases, travel distance and evacuation provisions. If passive fire protection is inadequate, merely retrofitting active systems cannot solve the problem.

What do you make of third-party fire-safety certification?

The government believes third-party certification can improve compliance. A notification was issued on May 26, 2026, and implementation is under way.

Its impact is yet to be seen. But our data show that in 2024-25, of the 36,000 calls attended by the department, only 1% came from buildings that had been issued FSCs by the department. This indicates that buildings certified by the Fire Department have largely remained safe from fire.

Third-party agencies must therefore be properly registered and selected for their experience and competence. Their ethical conduct will also be critical.

Is the Fire Service adequately staffed and equipped for Delhi?

A fire service has four pillars — manpower, equipment, response, including the distribution of fire stations, and technology — and all need improvement.

Delhi currently has 71 fire stations against a requirement of 120. We need more than 12,000 firefighters but have only about 2,500. We are therefore drastically short of manpower and infrastructure.

We are expected to get an additional 9,000 firefighters, while the number of stations is proposed to rise to 120 over the next five years.

We already have land for eight fire stations and are pursuing maps and estimates with the Public Works Department. We have identified 14 sites with the DDA (Delhi Development Authority) under zonal plans and asked the DDA to identify another 23 locations. Gram Sabha land has been identified for seven fire stations in urban villages and is under approval.

We have sought funds for modern equipment and proposed a 25-year technology vision plan, including drones and computerised dispatch systems. The landscape should change significantly over the next three to four years.

How do congestion and narrow lanes affect response times?

The prescribed response time under Standing Fire Advisory Council guidelines is five minutes, which is difficult to achieve in Delhi. Traffic is the biggest challenge, compounded by narrow lanes.

To address this, we have deployed 24 Quick Response Vehicles (QRVs), smaller fire tenders designed for firefighting and rescue operations in congested areas. Another 26 will be deployed shortly, and we are preparing to order 50 more.

Fire risks have also changed. In modern homes, lower roof heights, fewer ventilators and combustible synthetic materials have reduced fire flashover time from 17-18 minutes to just three to five minutes.

Earlier, firefighters could often reach a site before flashover and control the fire, giving occupants more time to evacuate. That was one reason fire deaths were lower.

Data show that sprinklers and fire detectors can reduce deaths by around 97%. We have asked the government to make them mandatory, and this has been approved in principle. We have also proposed that the DDA incorporate this requirement into the ongoing amendments to the building by-laws.

If implemented, fire deaths in Delhi could fall from around 100 a year to just three or four.

What emerging fire risks concern you most?

The Master Plan for Delhi, 2021, was amended to allow stilt parking, and many such buildings have since come up. We have seen several fires in these structures.

The fire load is often concentrated on the stilt, while these buildings may have only one staircase. If that staircase becomes blocked by smoke or fire, occupants have very limited escape options. Such buildings can effectively become an oven, with people trapped above the fire.

We are taking these concerns up with the building authorities.

What are the biggest misconceptions about Delhi Fire Services, and what should people do to improve fire safety?

The Fire Department’s turnout time is one minute during the day and two minutes at night. The perception that fire vehicles routinely arrive late does not reflect the department’s turnout process, though traffic and other factors can delay the journey.

The allegation that fire vehicles reach incidents with empty tanks is also incorrect. Vehicles are checked for water and other requirements before being commissioned for a fire and again after every incident.

Most importantly, people need to take greater responsibility for their own safety. They should know where emergency exits and first-aid firefighting equipment are, how to evacuate, and the dos and don’ts during a fire.

Fire-safety awareness should extend beyond those formally trained by the department. It has to become a wider public habit. .

Published - August 19, 2026 01:12 am IST