REGULATIONS REGARDING FIRE : Fire accidents in educational institutions are much less as compared to those in residential, commercial or industrial areas. This is a general observation as illustrated by Table. The data in this table are obtained from the Annual Reports for 1995-96 and 1996-97 of Delhi Fire Service.

Table: Number of Fire Calls from Different Groups of Users of Buildings.

Still care needs to be taken to prevent fire in educational units. The loss that could occur due to fire accident in an educational institution is enormous in terms of human lives, property and academic wealth (in the form of instruments, research data, books etc.). The case study 1 is an example. The State Governments are given the responsibility to formulate and execute regulations regarding fire prevention and fire fighting. In Delhi, for instance, Delhi Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Rules (1987) are operative. As mentioned earlier, National Building Code of India stipulates guidelines to minimise danger to life from fire, smoke or panic before buildings are evacuated. The code prescribes safety regulations for buildings depending on the type of their use. For educational buildings, there are two sets of guidelines:

i) One for buildings below 15 metres in height

ii) Another for buildings above 15 metres in height

Two of the fire safety recommendations for educational buildings below 15 metres in height arc as follows:

1. Educational buildings above two storeys having an area of more than 1000 metre' per floor should have a manually operated electrical fire alarm.
2. Each floor should have at least two separate exits.
3. Some of the fire safety recommendations for educational buildings of height more than 15 metres are given below:
4. Fire fighting equipment shall be provided on all the floors. Apart from manually operated fire alarm, it is advisable to fix automatic system also.
5. There should be at least two separate exits in each floor.
6. Notices shall be prepared and displayed prominently mentioning the procedure to be followed for evacuation during fire.
7. Fire drills (training) shall be conducted for all the inmates of the buildings.

Further, even at the construction stage, there is a need to get 'no objection certificate' from the local fire office to fulfil fire safety conditions. The guidelines prescribed in National Building Code for air-conditioning. Gas supply, water supply, installation of lifts etc are of utmost importance in preventing fire. Particular care must be given to electrical installations since considerable number of fire accidents occur due to electric short-circuits. The data published by Delhi Fire Service in its Annual Reports indicate that electrical short-circuits account for 70% and 69% of fire accidents in 1995- 1996 and 1996-97, respectively. For laboratories which are part of an industry, Factories Act prescribes guidelines for fire prevention.