New Delhi: A fire incident was reported late on 25 June at Khan global Studies coaching centre owned by the popular Khan Sir located in Patna’s Mussallah Pur Hat. All the students were safely evacuated from the institute, and the fire department reached the spot.
Large billows of smoke were seen coming out of the institute. The videos online show panicked students leaving the institutes, while some stood nearby, capturing the smoking building.
“See friends, there is smoke everywhere. Students are afraid and running here and there,” one student said while recording a video.
By the time the Kadam Kuan Police and fire rescue team reached the spot, the situation was already under control. The institute staff had used fire extinguishers to douse the fire. The fire was caused by a short circuit that occurred between two wire joints.
“The incident was caused by a short circuit between two wire joints, and the smoke was generated by the fire extinguishers,” said District Fire Officer Ritesh Kumar Pandey.
According to eyewitnesses, a large number of students were present at the Kisan Cold Storage campus at the time of the incident. The electricity panel was located very close to Khan Global Studies.
The smoke caused a brief panic on the campus. The coaching institute management immediately evacuated all students and staff. No injuries were reported. So far, there is no statement from Khan Global Studies regarding the incident.
Fire safety auditors had inspected Khan Global Studies and Khan Sir hospital on 7 June and 23 June. Several deficiencies were reported in both fire measures. The management was given 7 to 10 days to work on the shortcomings and comply with safety norms.
Fire department officials told ThePrint earlier this month that neither the coaching institute nor the hospital possessed the mandatory fire-safety clearance required for establishments of their scale.
“We have done an audit at his coaching institute and hospital, and neither of the places has basic fire-safety equipment. There are no fire alarms, no water pumps, no fire-detection systems, no emergency exits and even the staircases do not meet safety norms,” said Ritesh Pandey, Deputy Superintendent of Police at the Fire Safety Department in Patna.
Khan Sir applied for the hospital’s fire NOC in May and for the coaching institute in March. Both establishments had been operating long before those applications were submitted.
Pandey said all the required measures could be put in place at a cost of around Rs 8 lakh.
“I can tell you that it’s not more than a student’s life,” he said.
The fire comes amid ongoing tensions between Khan Global Studies and Gyan Bindu Academy. What started as a marketing fight over exam results has escalated into a full-blown legal thriller between the rival coaching institutes.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)