Chapter V Chapter V

General Measures for Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures and Self Regulation

20.

1. (1) Residential Apartment Buildings (10 units and above), Hotels, Educational Buildings, Hospitals and Sanatoria, Assembly Buildings, Multiplex Buildings, Business Buildings, Mercantile Buildings, Industrial Buildings, Factories, Storage, Godowns, Hazardous Buildings, Restaurants (seating capacity 30 persons and above) and pandals shall be considered to constitute a fire hazard or risk occupancy premises or buildings: Provided that the Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, include or exclude any class of occupancy having such height or covered area and pandals which, in its opinion, is likely to cause a risk of fire.
2. (2) The Government may require the owner or occupiers, or both, of premises or buildings or erectors of pandals notified under sub-section
3. (1) above, to take such fire prevention and life safety measures as per the Building Bye-laws and the National Building Code of India as prevalent on Fire and Life Safety or Code of Practice or Standards published by Bureau of Indian Standards as amended from time to time: Provided that no local authority shall grant construction permit without referring the matter to the Director, Assam Fire and Emergency Services or issue completion or occupancy certificate as the case may be in respect of the buildings or premises notified by the Government under sub-section
4. (1) above, without obtaining Fire Safety Certificate from the Assam Fire and Emergency Services.

21.

1. (1) On receipt of an application from any person or group of persons or organization proposing to construct a new building or making addition and/ or alteration to the existing building covered under sub-section
2. (1) of section 20, the local authority shall forward the application to the Director, Assam Fire and Emergency Services along with a set of building plan containing all the details of the proposed buildings such as site plans, layout plans, service plans, details of fire and life safety measures and the fees as may be prescribed based on the vulnerability to fire hazard or risks as provided under section 23.
3. (2) On receipt of an application under sub-section
4. (1) above, the Director or the Nominated Authority concerned shall within the stipulated period verify the documents and shall conduct physical inspection of the proposed site of the new building or the existing building as the case may be, if so required and shall communicate in writing such requirements relating to fire prevention and life safety measures in accordance with Building Bye-laws and the National Building Code of India as prevalent on fire and life safety measures with reference to height of building and class of occupancy to be taken as required under sub-section
5. (2) of section 20 in the form of recommendations to be complied with by the applicant.
6. (3) Upon completion of the building, if the recommendations are not complied with, Fire Safety Certificate shall not be issued, rather the building shall be declared unsafe from fire safety point of view and shall be referred to the District Magistrate for adjudication of the matter. The Local Authority shall not issue Occupancy Certificate of the said building.
7. (4) Under exceptional circumstances, the Director or any authorized officer of Assam Fire and Emergency Services shall be empowered for taking necessary steps to cancel the trade license, suspension of power supply and thereby declaring it unsafe from fire safety point of view and he may also take necessary steps to seal the building after observing all formalities in the interest of safety of the lives and properties.

22.

1. (1) Any person or group of persons or organization or body who have been issued recommendation under sub-section
2. (2) of section 21, on completion of construction shall make an application in the prescribed format to the Director, Assam Fire and Emergency Services for grant of Fire Safety Certificate duly certifying that all the measures as required have been provided in the building. The application shall be accompanied by fee as may be prescribed from time to time.
3. (2) The Director or Nominated Authority shall verify the adequacy and workability of required fire and life safety measures and issue the Fire Safety Certificate to the owner or occupier of the newly constructed or existing buildings on satisfactory compliance.

23.

1. (1) The period of validity of Fire Safety Certificate granted by the Assam Fire and Emergency Services shall remain valid until it is cancelled by the Competent Authority.
2. (2) The various buildings with high vulnerability to fire hazard or risks, moderate vulnerability to fire hazard or risks and low vulnerability to fire hazard or risks shall be as specified under relevant column in the table as annexed hereto as Schedule I: Provided that any building which is not included hereto, their vulnerability to fire hazards shall be determined by the Assam Fire and Emergency Services in view of fire and life safety on the basis of the fire load, type of construction of the building, combustibility of the materials used in building construction, the flame spread rating of the interior finish or other features of the building or structure.

24.

1. (1) In the event of violations of any of the conditions of the Fire Safety Certificate by the owner or occupier, the Director or any Fire Officers authorized by him on his behalf shall cancel the Fire Safety Certificate as per the notification issued by the Government from time to time.
2. (2) The Nominated Officer or any other authorized officers of the Services not below the rank of Station Officers of the concerned jurisdiction shall be empowered to conduct periodic or random inspections to verify the adequacy and workability of required fire safety measures as declared by the applicant in the self-declaration. In the event of non-compliance of any of the conditions of the self-declaration submitted by the owner or occupier, the Nominated Officers shall take such steps including cancellation of Fire Safety Certificate as may be necessary for the compliance of fire safety measures to be specified as per the notification issued by the Government from time to time.

25. The owner or occupier or both of the building or premises as the case may be shall continuously maintain fire prevention and life safety measures throughout the occupancy of the building or premises and failure to do so shall be construed violation under this Act and action shall be taken.

26.

1. (1) No person shall occupy or cause to occupy any building or premises including part thereof as specified under sub-section
2. (1) of section 20 without obtaining Fire Safety Certificate from the Director, Assam Fire and Emergency Services under this Act or rules made thereunder;
3. (2) Any failure to obtain Fire Safety Certificate for buildings or premises of low vulnerability to fire hazard or risk shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than ten thousand rupees and may extend upto twenty-five thousand rupees;
4. (3) Any failure to obtain Fire Safety Certificate for buildings or premises of moderate vulnerability to fire hazard or risk shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than twenty five thousand rupees and may extend up to fifty thousand rupees;
5. (4) Any failure to obtain Fire Safety Certificate for buildings or premises of high vulnerability to fire hazard or risk shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees and may extend up to five lakhs rupees; and where the offence is a continuing one, a further fine which may extend to five thousand rupees for every day after the first offence during which such offence continues.

27.

1. (1) The owner or occupier or both of the building or premises or part thereof shall not make any change in occupancy or any alteration of the building or premises after it has been granted Fire Safety Certificate by the Assam Fire and Emergency Services under sub-section
2. (2) of section 22 without obtaining prior approval of the Director and on failure to do so, the owner or occupier or both of the building or premises or part thereof shall be deemed to have committed an offence and shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than fifty thousand rupees and may extend up to five lakhs rupees.
3. (2) On receipt of an application for change in occupancy or alteration to building or premises including part thereof, the Director or the nominated officer or any other authorized officer shall verify and inspect the premises of the proposed changes or alteration and submit a report of such inspections.
4. (3) The owner or occupier of the building or premises including part thereof shall provide additional fire prevention and life safety measures as required under sub-section
5. (2) above and obtain Fire Safety Certificate afresh before occupancy.

28.

1. (1) No person shall manufacture, store, display or sale fireworks from any building or premises including part thereof without obtaining Fire Safety Certificate from the Director, Assam Fire and Emergency Services or any officer authorized by him on his behalf.
2. (2) No authority shall grant any licenses whether temporary or permanent for manufacturing, storage, display or sale of fireworks from any building or premises including part thereof without obtaining Fire Safety Certificate from the Director, Assam Fire and Emergency Services or any officer authorized by him on his behalf.
3. (3) In case any building or premises including part thereof is found to violate the provisions under sub-section
4. (1) above, the Director, Assam Fire and Emergency Services or any Fire Officer authorized by him on his behalf shall remove, seize, detain or dispose or destroy any fireworks or material used in the manufacture of such fireworks at the risk and cost of the owner and such owner shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than one lakhs rupees and may extend up to five lakhs rupees.

29.

1. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the erectors of pandals shall be self regulators for taking fire prevention and life safety measures referred under sub-section
2. (2) of section 20.
3. (2) The erector of a pandal shall display at the entrance of the pandal a declaration under his own signature in such form as may be prescribed to the effect that he has taken all the required fire prevention and life safety measures therein.
4. (3) The Director or Nominated Authority shall enter and inspect the pandal with a view to verify the correctness of the declaration so made by the erector under sub-section
5. (2) above, and issue notice in such form as may be prescribed pointing out the shortcomings, if any, with directions to rectify the same within a specified time. If the above mentioned directions are not complied within the specified time so given, the pandal shall be sealed.
6. (4) Any erector of a pandal who falsely declares that he has complied with the required fire prevention and life safety measures in the pandal shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than fifty thousand rupees and may extend up to two lakhs rupees.

30.

1. (1) The Director or any officer of the Assam Fire and Emergency Services as authorized by the Director shall direct for the removal of encroachments or objects or building elements or accumulated goods, materials or projected elements of a building or structural elements that apparently appears to affect the movement or maneuvering of emergency vehicle in case of emergency or causing apprehension of fire hazard or has potential fire hazard by its nature or causes obstruction in firefighting operation, both physically and visually. On failure of the owner, occupier or erector of pandal, as the case may be to comply with such direction, the Director or such officer as authorized by the Director shall give a reasonable opportunity of making representation within the stipulated time and upon failing to do so, the Director or the authorized officer shall report the matter before the District Magistrate, in whose territorial jurisdiction the premises or building or pandal is situated, requesting to adjudicate the matter: Provided that the Director or the officer authorized by the Director considers such encroachments or objects or goods to be an imminent cause of risk of fire or obstruction to firefighting, he may direct the owner or the occupier or erector of such premises or building to remove the encroachments or objects or goods forthwith and report the matter to the District Magistrate accordingly.
2. (2) On receipt of a report under sub-section
3. (1) above, the District Magistrate or such officer authorized by him shall give, by means of a notice served in such manner as he may think fit, a reasonable opportunity of showing cause against the removal of encroachment or objects or goods likely to cause a risk of fire or obstruction to firefighting.
4. (3) After giving the owner or occupier or erector, as the case may be, a reasonable opportunity of making representation under sub-section
5. (2) above, the District Magistrate or any officer authorized by him may make an order to seize, detain or remove such encroachments or objects or goods.
6. (4) The person charged with the execution of the order as made in sub-section
7. (3) above, shall forthwith make an inventory of the objects and goods which he seizes under such order and shall, at the same time, give a written notice as may be prescribed on this behalf, to the person in possession thereof at the time of seizure, that the said objects or goods shall be sold as therein mentioned if the same are not claimed within the period stipulated in the said notice.
8. (5) On failure of the person in whose possession the objects or goods were at the time of seizure to claim back the seized goods pursuant to notice given under sub-section
9. (4) above, the District Magistrate or any officer authorized by him on his behalf shall sell them accordingly by public auction.