Himachal Pradesh News
No room to fight fires: How missing setbacks have turned Baddi into a disaster-prone industrial hub
Repeated factory fires in Himachal’s Baddi industrial belt highlight how lack of mandatory open spaces and weak enforcement have turned the region into a high-risk zone.
The absence of mandatory open spaces around industrial units has turned Baddi, Himachal Pradesh’s largest manufacturing cluster, into a tinderbox. For firefighters, every blaze in the region is not just a battle against flames but a struggle against faulty layouts, narrow access points and prolonged administrative neglect.
Baddi, which accounts for over 90 per cent of the state’s industrial activity, has witnessed repeated fire incidents in recent years. In many cases, the damage has been compounded by the lack of setbacks around factories — a basic safety requirement meant to allow emergency movement. Despite repeated warnings, authorities have allowed industrial expansion to race ahead of safety enforcement.
The May 2025 fire at Alliance Biotech, a pharmaceutical unit in Katha village, laid bare the consequences of these lapses. The entire plot had been built over, leaving no open space for emergency access. Firefighters found themselves boxed in, with little room to operate.
Fire tenders struggled to navigate the congested approach roads, delaying operations. In one instance, a fire engine attempting to reach the rear of the unit got stuck in a swampy field and had to be pulled out using a hydra machine. Officials were eventually forced to cut through fencing to create an access route. By the time the blaze was brought under control, the unit had been completely gutted.
A month earlier, two other factories — Nav Packers and Prem Foils in Billanwali village — had suffered major losses under similar conditions. Fibre sheets installed over areas meant to serve as open buffer zones instead acted as channels, allowing the fire to spread rapidly. Experts warn that such design violations not only increase material losses but also trap workers, leaving them with little chance of escape during emergencies.
The issue is far from new. A committee constituted in 2009 after a deadly fire that claimed nine lives in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) belt had recommended strict adherence to the National Building Code. The panel had emphasised the need for adequate setbacks to facilitate firefighting operations.
The same report found that nearly 30 per cent of industrial units lacked basic fire safety arrangements, while another 5 per cent were categorised as highly vulnerable. Of the 700 units inspected at the time, most had failed to obtain permanent fire safety certificates — a lapse that persists even today.
Santosh Sharma, Commandant of Home Guards who also heads the district fire services, said the lack of setbacks has been the “primary cause of repeated fire incidents in Baddi over the past several years.” He added that the issue was flagged again before a multi-departmental task force in February 2024.
“During the process of granting fire NOCs, setbacks are clearly visible on the ground, not just on paper,” Sharma said. “But once approvals are granted, many units build over these spaces, converting compliant layouts into potential death traps.”
He called upon civic agencies, including the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Development Authority and the local municipal corporation, to take firm action. “This falls squarely within their jurisdiction. Without strict enforcement, we are only waiting for the next tragedy,” he warned.
