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Ghaziabad building owners exceeding 15 meters in height or 500 sqm floor area without a fire NOC will now bear firefighting costs. Notices issued to 43 societies for lacking or non-functional safety equipment follow a recent fire. Officials found widespread violations, including blocked access, prompting a crackdown on non-compliance.

GHAZIABAD : : Owners of buildings exceeding 15 metres in height or having a floor area above 500 square metres (sqm) but lacking a valid fire no-objection certificate (NOC) will have to bear the full cost of any firefighting operation, chief fire officer Rahul Pal said on Monday. The warning came as the fire department issued notices to 43 housing societies across Indirapuram , Crossings Republik, Raj Nagar Extension, among others, for lacking fire safety equipment or having systems that are non-functional.

Over the past 15 days, officials inspected more than 165 societies and found multiple violations, including encroachments and blocked access for fire tenders — a drive triggered by a fire at Gaur Green Avenue in Indirapuram, where a blaze on the ninth floor of a tower gutted eight flats across five floors. A probe flagged unauthorised constructions blocking emergency access to the tower and failure to maintain fire safety systems as factors that allowed the fire to spread rapidly across floors.

A senior official said the absence of NOCs in many buildings came down to two factors: owners unwilling to spend on equipment or meet compliance norms before applying, and older buildings in congested areas lacking the space for emergency exits or four-sided fire tender access.

Under department guidelines, buildings below 15 metres and under 500 square metres are exempt from mandatory NOC and equipment requirements, though Pal said the department was directing even these structures to install basic fire safety measures.