City schools to be scanned for fire safety

HYDERABAD: The Kumbakonam school tragedy on Friday spurred the fire services department in Hyderabad to bring schools in the city under their ongoing inspection programme.
School buildings will be scanned for fire safety measures and the fire traps among them will be identified.
No such survey of schools has ever been done in the city.
This is part of a series of activity-wise fire safety inspections in the city, divisional fire officer C Lakshmi Prasad said.It started off with a look at the safety measures in cinemas.
The other occupations identified for the survey include timber depots, saw mills and petrol pumps.
In the light of the Kumbanokam school fire, it was decided to include schools too in the ambit of the survey. The inspection of schools will begin after petrol pumps are covered.
"An awareness drive on fire safety has already been launched in city schools,'''' fire officials said.
Next in line are residential apartments and office buildings.