After a fire triggered by a suspected short circuit at Tardeo’s Sachinam Heights society killed nine people in January, the authorities scurried to make electrical audits of buildings mandatory. But they didn’t move beyond a few meetings and some paperwork. Sources said the chief electrical inspector submitted a plan to the state government in May but there has been no progress on it so far. 

In the latest incident, a fire broke out at Parel’s Wadia children’s hospital on August 5. Though it was quickly brought under control, the blaze once again underlined the need for electrical audits of buildings. Over 90 per cent of fires in the city start due to faults in the electrical system. Of the 48,434 fire incidents from 2008 to 2018, 32,516 were because of short circuits. In recent memory,  short circuits caused the fires at One Avighna Park at Currey Road in October and Hansa Heritage at Kandivli in November last year.