'We need balls to fight fire'

The Elide Fire balls at Cooper hospital

A proposal has been tabled at the BMC health committee to install fire balls at all civic-run hospitals. In 2018, mid-day had reported that Juhu's Cooper hospital had purchased the Elide Fire balls which automatically explode as soon as it comes in contact with temperatures over 85 degree Celsius. Doing so, it douses flames within 10 seconds, covering a range of up to 35 cubic metres.

The BMC committee argued that the fire extinguishers currently in use are tough to use and most don't know how to use them. After the Kamala Mills fire in 2017 December, the BMC, as a pilot project, installed fire balls at Cooper hospital. Later, as planned it was supposed to be installed in all major civic-run hospitals but so far no other hospital has it. Now, corporator Dr Saeeda Khan has written a letter to the BMC.

"These fireballs blast whenever heat around it exceeds at a certain limit and the sprinkle powder douses the fire without delay. This would help in case of fire outbreak in civic-run hospitals that are always overcrowded," she wrote.

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