Vijayawada orphanage home has neither fire NOC nor safety equipment, says official

Charred remains of furniture at REACH, a children’s orphanage home, at Gannavaram near Vijayawada.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Around 70 children were crammed into one room of the children’s orphanage home, REACH, at Gannavaram in Krishna district, where a fire mishap occurred in the wee hours of Tuesday.

“Of the total strength of 150 inmates, 140 were present in the orphanage home, of which 70 were accommodated in one room where the fire broke out,” said the fire officers who inscpeted the facility.

Gannavaram Station Fire Officer (SFO) Shaik Jan Ahmed, who monitored the fire fighting operation, said the fire services personnel doused the flames by spraying water through windows and rescued the children by breaking open the door.

“Devotees who were attending prayers nearby the orphanage home saw flames and smoke emanating from a room on the first floor. They tried to wake up the staff, but the watchman did not come out. Then one devotee jumped into the compound by scaling the wall. Some others alerted Gannavaram fire station at around 12.45 a.m.,” Mr. Ahmed told The Hindu on Wednesday.

“The orphanage home has not obtained the ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department and there was no firefighting equipment installed on the premises,” the SFO said.

“We reached the spot in just four minutes. Fire services personnel observed that the room was filled with smoke and flames were raging. They rescued two boys through the window. We got the information about the fire mishap late,” Mr. Ahmed said.

The Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department is inquiring into the cause of the fire, he said.