Nearly five months after the Health Department directed 192 district and taluk hospitals to conduct fire safety audits, 158 healthcare facilities (82%) have completed the exercise and 98 have got the fire safety recommendation report as of September 20.
The remaining facilities have now been asked to submit the audit reports by the end of this month. This is the third time that the deadline is being extended since May. Health officials attributed the delay to paucity of fire safety officers.
On April 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had a video-conference with Chief Ministers of all States, had suggested that all States should conduct fire safety audits in hospitals as fire accidents had increased due to summer heat then.
