Pune’s fire brigade has spent the past two weeks walking into paying-guest hostels, coaching classes, study rooms and scrap godowns, and shutting some of them. By October 2 the Pune Municipal Corporation’s fire department had inspected 447 establishments in a single week, and it now plans to levy fire and emergency service fees as a penalty on premises that lack required safety systems, Pune Pulse reported. Chief Fire Officer Ganesh Sonune said the PMC would shut establishments that don’t comply.
How the drive unfolded
Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram ordered the inspections in mid-September. The first sealings landed in Lohegaon and Nimbalkar Nagar, where the brigade sealed 11 PG hostels. Over the following days teams moved through Shivajinagar, Navi Peth, Wadgaon Budruk, Narhe and Dhayari, and ordered 13 PGs and seven scrap units shut, The Free Press Journal reported. Inspectors found scrap yards stacked with plastic, paper, sacks and metal without firefighting equipment, and PGs running in rented premises without the permissions needed to house paying residents.
Coaching institutes came next. On September 21 the PMC served notices on more than a dozen classes and study centres, including Jha Classes, IITPK, Bakliwal Classes and Unique Academy, and gave them seven days to fix violations such as missing emergency exits and fire-fighting equipment, according to Pune Pulse. By September 22 the brigade had acted against 129 establishments in five days, and the commissioner had told each station officer to complete at least 20 inspections a day and log them with photographs, Punekar News reported.
Why coaching hubs and PGs
Pune’s large student population rents beds in converted flats and spend their days in classes on upper floors of commercial buildings. Many of these spaces began as offices or homes and never went through the fire approvals that a hostel or classroom needs. The danger is familiar: in 2019, 22 students died when fire swept through a coaching centre in Surat’s Takshashila Arcade, and several of the victims died after jumping from upper floors to escape the smoke.
The law already requires these systems. The Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006, and the state’s unified building rules make fire safety compulsory for high-rise and special-use buildings, and owners must file a “Form B” certificate every January and July confirming their systems work. The number of sealings suggests many operators skipped those steps and nobody checked.
What students and parents should check
If you are paying for a PG bed or a coaching seat, you can run the inspectors’ checklist yourself before handing over a deposit:
- Two separate doors or exits, with emergency exits clearly marked.
- Fire extinguishers that are mounted, charged and within their refill date.
- A staircase and passages wide enough and kept free of stored goods, bikes or furniture.
- A fire NOC from the PMC. Ask the operator to show it, and treat a refusal as a warning sign.
A sealed PG also means a student may lose a bed mid-term. Keep rent receipts and the written agreement, which help when you ask for a deposit back.
What to watch
The penalty fees run from 0.25% to 1.25% depending on a building’s height and use, with higher rates above 45 metres and for industrial premises, according to the PMC’s notice as reported by Pune Pulse. Watch whether the corporation publishes a list of sealed and cleared establishments, and whether its plan to move fire permissions online, which Punekar News reported, shortens the queue for operators who want to comply.
Sources: Pune Pulse, The Free Press Journal, Punekar News
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.