Fire fighting regulations in India fall under the jurisdiction of state and local governments. The National Building Code provides guidance and standards for fire prevention and protection measures. It classifies buildings and outlines requirements for means of egress, fire protection systems, and construction standards according to fire risk. States have also enacted their own fire prevention acts and rules, though some have yet to be updated to align with current best practices. Responsibility for ensuring adequate fire protection in a building lies with the owner or occupier.

1. Fire Fighting Regulations.
By Manoj Kumar(HSE Professional,HSEGURU@YAHOO.IN/+91-8252771261,Aadhaar Number-
584186777088).
Today I am going to discuss about Fire Fighting Regulations.
 Fire services in India come under the 12th schedule of the Constitution under the provisions
of Article 243W of the Constitution, the performance of functions listed in the 12th schedule
comes under the domain of municipalities.
 Presently, fire prevention and fire fighting services are organized by the concerned states,
Union Territories (UTs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
 Fire services in some states like Gujarat, Chhattisgarh etc. are under the respective concerned
municipal corporations. In other remaining states, it is under the department in Home
Ministry.

2.  In view of the shortcomings in the fire services in different states of the country and the need to
upgrade it, the GoI in 1956 formed a Standing Fire Advisory Committee (SFAC) under the
Ministry of Home Affairs, which was renamed as Standing Fire Advisory Council (SFAC) in
1980.
 This committee/council has representation from each state fire service, as well as
representation from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Defence (MoD), Ministry
of Road Transport and Highways (MoT), Ministry of Communications and Information
Technology (MoC) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
MAIN REGULATIONS:
Fire services in India came under the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution of India, under the
provisions of Article 243W of the Constitution. The performance of the functions listed in the
Twelfth Schedule comes under the domain of Municipalities.
Regular fire services in India was established about 215 years back. The service was first established
in Bombay in 1803, followed by Calcutta in 1822, Delhi in 1867 and Madras in 1908. As per the
report released by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1997, there were 1754 fire stations with 5149 fire
appliances/vehicles and 50,730 fire professionals are functioning PAN India.
In addition to above, there were 278 trailer-made fire stations operating exclusively in industrial
sectors. According to the Annual Report 2009–10 of Ministry of Home Affairs, in 2009, Centrally
Sponsored Scheme on Strengthening of Fire and Emergency Services in the Country has been
approved by the Government at an estimated cost of Rs.200 crore during the Eleventh Plan Period.

3. The State Governments will also contribute Rs.40.23 crore as their share. The overall objective of
the Scheme is to strengthen fire and emergency service in the country and progressively transform it
into Multi-Hazard Response Force capable of acting as first responder in all types of emergency
situations. Under the Scheme, additional 277 Advanced Fire Tenders, 1,146 High Pressure Pumps
with Water Mist Technology, 573 Quick Response Team Vehicles, and 1,146 Combi Tools for
Rescue will be provided at District Headquarter Fire Brigades in the country. To find the actual
requirement of firefighting and rescue equipment, the Ministry of Home Affairs, has decided to
carry out Fire Risk and Hazard Analysis in the country.
Presently fire prevention and firefighting services are organised by the concerned States and Union
Territories. It may be added here that the fire brigades in India remain heterogeneous in character
and majority of them continue to remain ill-equipped and differently organised.
The National Building Code (NBC), which is the basic model code in India on matters relating to
building construction and fire safety. Fire prevention and fire protection is a state subject. The
primary responsibility for fire prevention and fire protection lies primarily with State Governments.
The rules for fire prevention and fire protection are laid in the form of State Regulations or
Municipal By-Laws.
2.1 National Building Code:
The National Building Code is published by Bureau of Indian Standards. The first edition of the
NBC was published in 1970. This edition was revised in 1983, 1987 and 1997. The second edition
of the NBC was published in 2005. The third edition of the NBC was published in 2016,
incorporating the latest developments in the construction activities in the country.

4. The main objective of NBC is to specify measures that will provide that degree of safety from fire,
which is practical and can be reasonably achieved. The Code insists upon compliance with
minimum standards of fire safety necessary for building occupants and users. For ensuring
compliance of fire protection equipment/installations to the laid down quality requirements, it is
desirable to use such equipment/installation duly certified under the BIS Certification Marks
Scheme.
The NBC classify the buildings into the following 9 groups:
These groups have been subdivided into various categories. The NBC also deals with three types of
fire zones and four types of constructions.
The Part 4 (Fire and Life Safety) of NBC, which contain the fire safety norms through detailed
provisions on fire prevention, life safety and fire protection. The fire protection, which not only
deals with fire prevention and fire protection but also gives guidance by specifying the standards for
construction, plumbing, electrical installations including wiring, lighting, ventilation, heating and air
conditioning, safety sanitation, active and passive fire protection systems, etc. It mentions the
restrictions of buildings in each fire zone, classification of buildings based on occupancy, the
demarcation of fire zones, limitations of height, types of building construction according to fire
resistance of the structural and non-structural components and other restrictions and requirements
necessary to minimise danger to life from fire, smoke, fumes or panic before the building can be
evacuated.
The Code recognizes that safety of life is more than a matter of means of egress and accordingly
deals with various matters which are considered essential to the safety of life. The Code therefore
covers provisions relating to means of egress covering various components thereof namely exit

5. access, exit and exit discharge. It also covers provisions relating to fire protection of various
occupancies through portable and fixed firefighting installations (Refer Table 7 of NBC 2016).
The Part — 4 of NBC 2016 has 11 Annexures, which are listed in Table 01.
2.2 State Regulations:
By and large, the State fire prevention and fire safety act & rules complement the National Building
Code. Many of the NBC Code provisions have been incorporated by various State Governments
and Local Bodies in their own building regulations. For example, the acts & rules enacted by states
like Maharashtra and Gujarat are aimed to improve overall status of fire safety measures in their
respective states. Some of the Acts/Rules regarding fire prevention and fire protection enacted by
various State Governments are listed in Table 02. It may be seen from Table 02, that some of the
State Governments are yet to update their Act and Rules.
Often a question has been raised by many that who will be responsible for providing the required
fire protection and prevention system in a building or in an occupancy. The acts and rules enacted
by the State of Maharashtra has well defined on these points. According to Section 3 of the
Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006, the developer, owner, occupier
or whatever name called shall comply with all the fire and safety measures adhering to the National
Building Code of India, and as amended from time to time, failing which it shall be treated as a
violation of the Act. It means that the onus of maintaining the fire safety installations in a building or
in an occupancy is the responsibility of the owner or occupier.