VISAKHAPATNAM: Don't practice what you preach seems to be the mantra of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), going by the double-standards that the civic body has adopted when it comes to fire safety norms.

Though GVMC is responsible for ensuring that buildings less than 15 metres in height (five floors) in the city comply with the fire safety norms, the civic body itself does not believe in adhering to these rules, turning its own building at Asilmetta into a potential firetrap.

This alarming aspect came to light on Wednesday afternoon when a minor fire erupted in the air conditioning unit in the cellar, triggering a few tense moments at the corporation building. Timely intervention by the fire safety wing of the corporation averted a possible inferno.

The corporation had given a facelift to the old corporation building in 2005, before it was bestowed upon the status of the Greater City. In a major lapse, the authorities "forgot" to set up fire safety equipment in the massive building that accommodates the city health, planning, revenue, engineering and other wings in its two cellars, ground and other two floors.

With nearly four hundred employees usually on the duty at any given point of time in the building, none of the floors, including the cellar and sub-cellar, is equipped with fire safety equipment. Eight years after it became corporation of the Greater City, GVMC does not have any sprinkler system, fire extinguishers or hose-reel to tackle any fire accidents.

"It would be a disaster in case a fire breaks out on any of the floors in the building, which has loads of files pertaining to revenue, town planning, engineering, projects, medical and health, besides urban community development (UCD) and other wings," GVMC sources said.

The only thing the GVMC building has is a two-way staircase exit on each floor for evacuation in the event of a fire accident. In case of a fire breakout at GVMC, similar to the incident that occurred at Sri Sai Complex at Dwarakanagar on Monday, where scores of people were stranded inside the building and were almost suffocated due to the thick smoke, the building could be a deathtrap.

According to sources, though the fire prevention wing of GVMC has already submitted a report listing out the deficiencies in the entire building and the essential fire safety equipment required three months ago, the file is pending with the engineering department. "It is surprising that the civic body has failed to implement the law it lays down for others in its own building over the past decade, putting the lives of hundreds of people including, staff and the visitors, in risk," city CPM secretary Ganga Rao alleged.

When contacted, GVMC's chief engineer Jayarami Reddy said they were preparing the estimations and would call for tenders in a week or two and the fire safety equipment would be installed in a couple of months.

However, GVMC fire prevention wing officer SV Narasimham said commissioner M V Satyanarayana had already instructed the engineering wing to take necessary action after the lack of fire safety measures in the building came to his notice three months ago. But the engineering wing officials are yet to set up the equipment that costs a mere Rs 10 lakh to secure the entire building, sources said.