Here’s the one thing that irks us most about yesterday’s tragic fire at Mantralaya — the fact that no building in Maharashtra, not even one housing some of the state’s most powerful people, takes something as important as fire safety seriously.

As our reporters returned in the aftermath of the blaze, examining everything from possible causes and potential damage to how the hand of providence saved lives, most of the stories they came back with concerned the complete callousness with which safety rules were flouted. Apparently, the staff at Mantralaya had never been taken through a fire safety drill.