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Kamala Mills Fire: Public Relations Body Starts Campaign 

Kamala Mills fire: Public relations body start campaign for better fire safety 

View of the charred building in which a fire broke out in Kamala Mills, Mumbai. (Courtesy: PTI)
View of the charred building in which a fire broke out in Kamala Mills, Mumbai. (Courtesy: PTI)

The Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) has launched a communication drive to focus attention on the appalling lack of fire safety in public places, in the wake of a devastating blaze at a Mumbai pub which claimed 14 lives.

The PCRI, a non-political, not-for-profit body of public relations, media, social media, advertising, human resources, marketing professionals, mass communication academicians and students, has started the campaign 'we are playing with fire', popular on social media by the hashtag -- #vrplayingwithfire.

"Communicators and people in general must raise their voice, use the powerful tool of media and social media to work on mass awakening about the death traps that we encounter daily," PCRI's national president BN Kumar said.

"Don't we see that the restaurants, hotels, multiplexes etc that we visit have narrow passages that could be death traps in case of accidents?" PRCI Chairman Emeritus and Chief Mentor M B Jayaram said.

Also Read: Kamala Mills Fire: 14 Killed, 21 Injured In Fire At Pub Hosting Birthday Bash

One of the tweets read: "#vrplayingwithfire Do our homes, eateries, cinemas, offices, clubs, rly stations, airports etc have fire safety norms? Raise ur voice, ask questions, post here and other platforms. No lessons learnt from past disasters? Act now, else repent later. Join @PRCINOW campaign."

The tweet has tagged the Prime Minister's Office as well urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the issue.

"It is the duty of all of us to keep raising questions about safety of our places of work, residential and commercial complexes," said Kumar.

He pointed out that the interior roads of many swanky complexes in several places in Mumbai are narrow.

"Everyone talks about safety at the time of disasters and forget it after that. That is the tragedy of our lives," Jayaram said.

He expressed the hope that the communications fraternity would keep the issue alive and and spread the word about it.