Mumbai hotels seek approval to use flour to douse fire!

• 'Using flour to fight a fire is the stupidest idea I've ever heard,' a professor said.

The Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association (AHAR) has initiated request to use 'roti atta' (flour) instead of the conventional way of handling kitchen fire with sand. Mumbai Fire Brigade instructed all hotels and restaurants to stock sand in their kitchens after a tragic fire killed over a dozen people at a restaurant in Kamala Mills in Mumbai last December.

However, keeping sand in the kitchen is a violation of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) norms which has led hoteliers to seek approval for using flour to douse initial stages of a kitchen fire, according to The Hindu.

AHAR wrote on January 31 to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, requesting that they be allowed to use 'roti atta' within the kitchen as FSSAI instructs not to store sand in the cooking area as it can contaminate the food.

AHAR president Santosh Shetty said, "Old methods are okay and we are not against using sand. But keeping sand in the kitchen is in violation of food contamination rules. What we are suggesting is an alternative source, since 'atta' is available in every kitchen."

Contradicting AHAR's suggestion a professor from IIT-Bombay said, "Using flour to fight a fire is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Flour becomes a combustible gas."

However, according to Sunil Keswani, a plastic surgeon and medical director of the National Burns Center in Airoli, flour might be a good substitute for sand in order to curb kitchen fires induced by oil.