lucknow a blaze that broke out early on saturday at gadbad jhala market in aminabad has once again triggered a debate on fire safety norms in congested city markets four fire tenders managed to extinguish the blaze after two hours but three cosmetic stores were completely guttedthe city witnesses several fire mishaps every year during summers a reality check of over twodozen prominent markets including mohan market prince market gadbad jhala charbagh latouche road mahanagar bhoothnath kapoorthala alambagh chowk nakkhas and dandiya has revealed a deeply concerning situation all these markets are highly vulnerable to fire accidents numerous electric poles with tangled wires and narrow streets in these markets make it difficult for fire tenders to access affected areas besides hose reels fire extinguishers fire alarms and sprinklers were not available in most of these marketslocals said unauthorized shops have mushroomed in these areas while lda lucknow municipal corporation and police have turned a blind eye raising concerns about poor fire safety standards in the city markets the locals further said that encroachment continues to thrive here posing a risk not only to residents but also to the businesses communityshopkeepers in aminabad charbagh and mahanagar have complained about frequent short circuits caused by tangled wires leading to fire mishaps abrar ahmad khan 61 who owns a shop in gadbad jhala and whose shop had caught fire on saturday stated the fire completely destroyed my artificial jewellery shop now we will have to start from scratch the fire broke out in the morning around 830 and by the time i arrived everything was ruined he also mentioned that it took a long time for the fire brigade to extinguish the blaze he said that had there been no encroachments the response time would have been much shorter sujit sharma a sweet shop owner of charbagh said tangled electric wires pose a fire threat here the market witnesses frequent power cuts and lanes are too narrow fire tenders cannot enter the market in case of an accident moreover there is no arrangement of water near shops in the past whenever fire accidents occurred in the area local residents had to bring water in buckets to assist firemen he addedsimilar situation is prevailing in bhoothnath kapoorthala and alambagh markets which are so congested that firemen find it difficult to reach there on time chowk and nakkhas too have narrow lanes and bylanes making it difficult for rescue teams to reach there president of up kapda udyog vyapar mandal ashoke motiyani laid stress on initiating fire safety measures in aminabad marketinputs by priyanshi mishra achintya singh namra zubair anjanaya singh and simran arora