Fire Safety COP

Fire Safety COP or Fire Safety Compliance Portal is the name of the new portal launched by the state of Gujarat, for the purpose of approval and renewal of fire safety certifications for buildings. The first of its kind system for fire safety certifications and maintenance has been designed by the Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management.

This launch of the portal comes after were several fire accidents in the state of Gujarat, including the one in Rajkot.

Key Points for UPSC Prelims

• Under the system, the government has given approval for the process of training and enrolling private ‘fire safety officers (FSOs)’.
• FSOs will be divided into three categories- General, Advance, and Specialist. They will be provided with training at the Gujarat State Institute for Fire Safety Training.
• These Fire Safety officers would carry out timely inspection, testing as well as maintenance of fire safety systems in buildings. They will also look after the renewal of fire safety certificates.
• These fire safety officers will also be subjected to penal actions if they are found to flout any rules.
• The state would also create a new position of Director of Fire will be created for each of the four zones of the state.
• The approval, as well as the renewal of fire safety certification, will be done completely online on the portal.
• The portal will provide solutions for facilitation and enrollment of safety officers, approval and renewal of safety certificates, and the provision of online payment.

Fire Safety COP Implementation

The newly launched online portal – Fire Safety COP will be implemented from January 26, 2021. The system is a step towards modernizing the fire safety certification process.

The portal will help the Gujarat government in monitoring the compliance level of the approval and renewal of fire safety certificates.  The fire safety certificates of the new buildings will be valid for 3 years.  The safety officers will be responsible for checking the fire safety measures in the buildings in every 6 months and upload the report on the portal.