Bhubaneswar: As manpower crunch in the Fire Services department has been proving a major impediment in the regular safety audit of clinical and non-clinical establishments in the state, plans have been mooted for appointing third party auditors for the purpose.
Top sources in the state Fire Services department told OrissaPOST that a proposal to this effect has already been submitted to the government and it is in the final stages of approval.
“We expect the proposal will come through during a Cabinet meeting soon,” they said.
The need for the move arose, sources said, primarily on account of the fact that a large number of (almost over 5,000) clinical establishments, and double the number of other establishments, requiring mandatory fire safety audits in the state, remain unaudited. “We don’t have the required manpower to carry out audits at such large number of establishments. In the absence of such exercise, life and property at these establishments are vulnerable to hazards,” the sources added.
As the Fire Services department was grappling with the issue, the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Rules, 2009, came to the rescue. “We decided to adopt the practices followed in Maharashtra as a solution,” a senior Fire official said requesting anonymity.
Elaborating, he said, the Maharashtra rules have provisions for appointment of third party auditors who will be empanelled by the Fire department to conduct audit at the establishments requiring fire audits in case they don’t have in-house arrangements like keeping a fire safety supervisor.
“These third-party auditors can be hired by the firms just like they hire auditors to audit their accounts. This is because, annual fire safety audit is a mandatory license condition for all establishments,” the official said.
The auditor should have a degree from the National Fire Service College in Nagpur to be considered eligible for such a job. “Otherwise, the candidate should posses a civil engineering or an equivalent degree with experience in handling fire safety of an establishment,” the official said of the auditors’ minimum eligibility criteria.
Such a person would undergo training at the Odisha Fire and Disaster Response Academy (OFDRA), Bhubaneswar before being deemed fit for certification as fire safety auditor. “Only after getting a certificate from OFDRA, the candidate can apply for empanelment,” the official said.
Once hired by an establishment, the third-party auditor will be required to carry out the fire audit at mandated intervals and upload the report for verification, as and when required, the official added.