School Safety – Fire Drills & Preparedness Status (2019–2025)

India has about 14.71 lakh schools (UDISE+ 2024-25). Nobody publishes an official national figure for how many of them hold regular fire or evacuation drills. So the person who has to find out is you. Ask your child’s school.

(Source: Ministry of Education, UDISE+ 2024-25 data.)

We test children every week on maths and science. Very few schools test whether those same children can get out of the building in two minutes when the alarm rings. The fire at Takshashila Arcade in Surat in 2019, where students died in a coaching centre, showed what happens when nobody has planned for it.

Fire accidents by place (NCRB, 2024)

Place of fire	Fire accidents	Deaths
School buildings	11	9
Commercial buildings	277	249
Residential or dwelling buildings	3,585	3,555
All places	5,971	5,888

(Source: NCRB, Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2024, Table 1.12.)

What this means:

• Fire deaths inside school buildings are few in the data. But one fire in a school or coaching centre can kill many children at once, as Surat showed in 2019.
• NCRB does not publish how many schools hold fire certificates or run drills. There is no official national figure.
• Coaching centres are often in commercial buildings, so a fire there is counted under commercial buildings, not schools.

Gaps we commonly see in schools

1. No fire alarm or manual call points, especially in older buildings.
2. Extinguishers that are expired or have never been refilled.
3. Staircases used for storage, with old benches, sports equipment or exam papers piled up.
4. Teachers and security guards with no training in what to do in an emergency.
5. No marked assembly point, so nobody can check quickly whether every child is out.

Case study: Takshashila Arcade, Surat (2019)

• Where: a coaching centre on the top floor of a commercial building in Surat.
• What happened: the fire reportedly started from an electrical short circuit near the staircase, cutting off the only way down.
• Result: 22 students were killed. Many jumped from the building to escape the fire.
• What was missing: no evacuation training, no working alarm and no second way out.
• Lesson: fire safety is not a certificate on the wall. It is a second staircase, a working alarm and children who have practised getting out.

What the NDMA School Safety Policy asks for

The National Disaster Management Guidelines on School Safety Policy (2016) say schools should:

• Set up a School Disaster Management Committee, chaired by the principal, with teachers, staff, parents and students.
• Prepare a school disaster management plan with warnings, communication, evacuation routes, emergency vehicle access and care for children with special needs.
• Display a site map with evacuation routes and assembly areas on each floor.
• Hold regular mock drills and follow them up in class.
• Keep exit routes clear, make sure detection and alarm systems work, and get fire extinguishers regularly refilled.
• Review the plan through safety audits.

(Source: NDMA, National Disaster Management Guidelines, School Safety Policy, February 2016.)

How a school can become safer

• Train every teacher, guard, driver and helper in basic fire response and first aid.
• Make older students safety monitors for their class, so younger children have someone to follow.
• Put up clear exit signs and floor maps that children can understand.
• Install smoke alarms and emergency lighting, and test them.
• Teach a safety lesson every term, not just on Safety Day.
• Invite the local fire station for a demonstration and a joint drill.
• Check coaching centres and hostels too. Children spend long hours there.

What should change

• Fire and disaster safety should be part of every education board’s school inspection.
• Teacher training programmes should include fire preparedness.
• States should publish which schools have held drills and fixed their fire safety gaps.
• Coaching centres should face the same fire safety checks as schools.

What parents can do this week

At the next parent-teacher meeting, ask three things. When was the last fire drill? Where is the assembly point? Is there a second staircase, and is it open? If your child goes to a coaching class, ask the same questions there. A school that is prepared will be happy to answer. One that is not needs to hear the question.

For your next visit to your child’s school, our school building safety checklist lists what to look at and what to ask.

References

• NDMA, National Disaster Management Guidelines, School Safety Policy, February 2016
• Ministry of Education, UDISE+ 2024-25 school data
• NCRB, Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2024, Table 1.12 (ncrb.gov.in)