Lingipur market complex blaze spurs fire safety compliance debate

Bhubaneswar: A massive fire that engulfed a four-storeyed market complex in Lingipur late on Monday and continued well into Tuesday re-ignited a larger debate on fire safety compliance in the city’s rapidly growing urban landscape.

While the immediate focus of the authorities remained on dousing the flames, urban safety experts and civic activists raised concerns, alleging that many commercial establishments in the city operate without valid fire safety certificates.


According to the Agnishamaseva portal of the state govt, Bhubaneswar circle has 14 fire stations or sections that are authorised to issue fire safety certificates to buildings of all kinds, including schools, hospitals, apartments and commercial establishments.

Data revealed that the 14 sections within the city limits received 1,936 applications for issuance of fire safety certificates so far, of which only 873 certificates were issued to structures of varied kinds.

Surprisingly, of the 14 sections, only four sections received applications, while the remaining 10 sections, mostly located on the outskirts or in rural areas, did not receive a single application for issuance of fire safety certificates.

This data raised significant concern among experts. “This tragedy is not just about one market complex. Several malls, hospitals and shopping complexes are operating without mandatory fire clearance,” opined Prakash Das, an urban planner. He said the numbers available with the govt itself reflect how seriously people take fire safety in buildings. “There is a need to conduct proper audits of all kinds of buildings, and enforcement is the need of the hour,” Das suggested.

Ekamra MLA Babu Singh, who visited the incident site in Lingipur, also admitted the systemic failure. “The incident is a wake-up call, and enforcement and awareness will be carried out extensively about fire safety compliance,” he said.

Civic activist Ananta Pradhan said many buildings often lack proper exit points and fire safety equipment such as sprinklers and extinguishers. “A proper audit will reveal failures, and action should be taken accordingly,” he said.

Notably, the Lingipur fire incident is not an isolated one in the city recently. In Dec last year, a massive fire broke out at a rooftop restaurant in Satya Vihar on NH-16. Earlier in February, a fire broke out on the second floor of an apartment in Jharpada.