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Fireworks hazards

The late Tuesday evening inferno at the Adamalee Complex at Gasworks Street, Pettah, which has, at the time of writing claimed 19 lives, raises a series of disquieting questions which needs answering.

From what could be gathered, several persons had been trapped in the more than century old, four storeyed building and had been burnt to death. There had, apparently, been no emergency exits in the building and the main exits at the ground floor shopping complex seem to have been locked.

Hopefully, comprehensive investigations would be conducted by the authorities and the whole truth about this tragedy swiftly bared. The most widespread hypothesis about this terrible blaze in the heart of Colombo is that stocks of fireworks which had been stored in ground floor shops in the building had exploded and ignited the tragedy. If this is so, it should be probed whether the blaze was accidentally sparked or whether it was the handiwork of arsonists. If arsonists are behind the tragedy, what were their motives in setting off the blaze?

If the fiery calamity which also claimed seven members of one family was accidental, what are the circumstances which led to it? These and many more questions need to be probed and answered on the immediate causes of the fire.

Another category of posers which occurs at this juncture relates to the precautionary or security measures which need to and could have been taken at the building and by the stockists of fireworks. If there have been no emergency exits of any sort in the building and if the casualties were virtually trapped in the blaze, a serious view needs to be taken of this structural limitation.

From what could be gathered, the victims of the fire were lodgers in the building. When flames engulfed the main exits, apparently, they were not in a position to scramble out of the building because there were no other exits. A question which arises from this explanation is whether this limitation in building construction is common to many other buildings of this kind in Colombo and outside.

This aspect of the tragedy too needs to be thoroughly investigated by the authorities concerned - in this instance, local government personnel - and speedy action initiated to remedy the defect in building construction. Apparently all storeyed buildings need to provide emergency exists of some kind to guard against incidents of this nature. The precaution should be taken to ensure that all extant storeyed buildings conform to this standard requirement, if they have not already done so.

There is also reason to believe that fireworks in sizeable quantities are being stored by stockists when they are most in demand, with little attention being paid to the dangers they pose. Even if the dangers and hazards are realised by these dealers in fireworks, little effort seems to be made to take the relevant precautionary measures against the possible dangers the fireworks pose.

This is anther chore for the future. Dealers in fireworks need to be compelled to store their dangerous merchandise in the safest way possible. In fact, the dangers in permitting the stocking of large quantities of fireworks need to be perceived by the law enforcement authorities. We believe that this practice needs to be discouraged in view of the looming dangers to life and limb. Other security implications of this practice, also need to be considered.

The campaign against the use of fireworks during festivities has a sound rationale to it and we believe that this drive needs to be strengthened in the days ahead if we are to ward off terrible tragedies, the like of which we witnessed on Tuesday night.

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