Book Review:.... Flameguard: Fire Safety Management by Kanwal Peshin
Publisher: ...BFC Publications, Lucknow
Price:.....₹155
Fire safety is not my subject. Yet , Flameguard held me like a novel. Kanwal Peshin’s style is plain, urgent, and human. Published by BFC Publications, the work is structured as a six-chapter manual aimed at facility managers, safety officers, policymakers, and ordinary citizens who bear responsibility for fire prevention. He says systems are useless if people don’t use them. Kanwal’s central thesis is straightforward yet critical: “No matter how good active and passive fire protection systems you have in place, they all become useless once the people who are supposed to use the installed safety tools and systems are unaware of how to use them in an emergency”. This human-factor focus distinguishes Flameguard from purely technical codes and positions it as a management guide rather than an engineering textbook.
The book is a practitioner-oriented text that tackles one of India’s most under-addressed public safety crises: fire-related fatalities. It opens with a sobering statistic that immediately frames its urgency: “Due to fire and related causes in India itself, almost 25,000 fatalities occur every year. On an average, around 21 males and 42 females die each day”. The book is divided into six chapters that progress logically from problem identification to solutions:
Chapter 1: "Introduction to Fire Safety in India" sets the stage by defining fire as a universal hazard: “Fire is something that can be expected at any structure, maybe at your home, at your workplace, in a hospital, or in public places, almost anywhere”. It emphasises that fire “would certainly have the potential to cause harm to its occupants and severe property damage”. This chapter establishes that fire safety is not a niche concern for factories but a daily risk in all occupancies.
Chapter 2: "The Problem" quantifies India’s fire burden. The gendered imbalance :42 female deaths vs 21 male deaths daily , points to domestic hazards like LPG cylinders and electrical faults in homes that differ from industrial risks dominant in Western texts.
Chapter 3: "Prevention Strategy" moves from diagnosis to action. The author’s emphasis on “day-to-day management” indicates a focus on routine, low-cost interventions: risk assessment, housekeeping, electrical safety, and behavioural protocols rather than expensive retrofits.
Chapter 4: "Legislations" addresses the regulatory framework. India’s fire safety landscape is fragmented across the National Building Code, state Fire Service Acts, and NDMA guidelines. Placement of legislation after prevention suggests Kanwal believes compliance alone is insufficient without cultural change.
Chapter 5: "Fire Safety Audit" operationalises the strategy. Audits are presented as diagnostic tools: “it is every individual’s responsibility to identify flaws in the fire safety procedures”. The chapter likely provides checklists for egress, extinguishers, alarms, and evacuation drills.
Chapter 6: "Fire Safety Awareness" is the book’s philosophical core. Kanwal argues that systems fail when users are untrained: “unaware of how to use them in an emergency and are unaware of the significance of the use of such systems”. The solution is “a proper fire safety management programme should be established in the building”. For 100% safety, “a healthy fire safety management system is essential”. This chapter elevates the book from a manual to a manifesto for behavioural change.
Strengths of the Book
Most Indian fire safety literature is code-driven, dense with NBC clauses and IS standards. Flameguard pivots to the user. By stating that management is “basically a day-to-day management concept for aligning a building’s fire safety procedures in place so that they can be used at the time of need”, Kanwal makes the subject accessible to non-engineers. This is vital in a country where 25,000 lives are lost yearly, often in homes, schools, and hospitals lacking dedicated fire officers.
The book is unapologetically India-specific. Citing the annual toll grounds the discussion in local reality, highlighting risks : kitchen fires, garment fires, and short circuits that demand context-aware solutions.
The emphasis on audits, awareness, and management systems gives readers actionable tools. The line, “No matter how good active and passive fire protection systems you have” is a reality check for builders who install sprinklers but never conduct drills. Kanwal’s insistence on individual responsibility “it is every individual’s responsibility” democratises safety.
Flameguard fills a critical gap between the National Building Code and on-ground behaviour. Its ideal readers are:
Facility Managers: For implementing daily checklists and training programmes.
Housing Societies/RWAs : To understand that sprinklers are useless if residents don’t know evacuation routes.
Hospital/School Administrators: Where the domestic fire death data suggests institutional overlap.
Policy Makers: To see that legislation without awareness campaigns fails.
Critical Assessment And Conclusion
Kanwal succeeds in reframing fire safety from a hardware problem to a management problem. The core insight that “a healthy fire safety management system is essential” for 100% safety is empirically sound. NCRB data show most fire deaths in India stem from failure of evacuation and first aid, not absence of extinguishers. Flameguard is a timely, necessary primer for India’s fire safety ecosystem. In a country losing 25,000 lives yearly, Kanwal’s human-centric argument is both ethical and practical. The book won’t replace technical codes, but it ensures those codes don’t gather dust. Its message is blunt and necessary: systems don’t save lives; people using systems do. For any Indian institution serious about preventing the next headline tragedy, establishing the “proper fire safety management programme” Kanwal advocates is step one.
Flameguard is not a code book. It is a call to account. Builders, residents, planners and anyone with a key to any door should read it. Kanwal delivers what 1000-page manuals cannot: clarity in 79 pages. He begins with the arithmetic of neglect: 25,000 lives a year. He ends with a system you can start before sundown.
(Avtar Mota)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.