Post Surat tragedy, experts to conduct Vadodara fire audit:

Civic and police authorities in Vadodara in Gujarat have sealed and snapped electricity connections of 192 coaching classes in fire safety compliance action initiated against the backdrop of the devastating blaze on Friday in Surat which killed 22 students.

Vadodara Municipal Corporation Commissioner Ajay Bhadoo Sunday said the civic body planned to carry out the first ever fire audit in the city for which experts from the Delhi-based Institution of Fire Engineers will be brought in.

"Experts from the Institution of Fire Engineers are expected in Vadodara in the next couple of days to carry out the audit," Bhadoo said, adding that it may be the first of its kind exercise anywhere in the state and possibly the country.

"The VMC Fire Brigade has sealed 192 coaching classes and their power supply halted over the last two days," he informed.

He said the city has a huge number of small and medium sized commercial units in its three industrial estates and the fire audit would provide a detailed assessment of the kind of equipment and number of personnel required to avert any Surat-type tragedy.

Vadodara police commissioner Anupamsinh Gehlot said apart from sealing establishments that were not complying with fire safety norms, the process of issuing notices to several coaching classes had also begun.

Twenty-two students, including 18 girls, of an art and craft coaching institute died in a devastating fire that engulfed the four-storeyed Takshashila Arcade in Sarthana area of Surat on Friday.

Preliminary probe revealed that use of highly inflammable materials and tyres, which doubled up as chairs in the coaching class, caused the fire to spread rapidly, Gujarat Chief Secretary J N Singh said Sunday.