A fire that ripped through a commercial building in Gurugram, India, has left at least 15 dead and dozens injured. Sources confirm the blaze started in the basement, where electrical wiring had been jury-rigged to bypass safety cutoffs. Local authorities are already pointing fingers at builders who ignored fire codes. But the real story here is what the UK exported: fire safety regulations that look good on paper but mean nothing without enforcement.
Documents uncovered by this newsroom show that after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, British officials rushed to sell their 'world-leading' fire safety framework to developing nations. India bought in. They adopted the British Standards, hired UK consultants, and held ceremonies. But the Gurugram building never saw a single inspection. Sources confirm that the fire exit signs were there, brightly lit until the power went out. The sprinklers? Never installed.
This isn't just an Indian problem. It's a global scandal. British fire safety experts have been jetting around the world, collecting fees from governments desperate to modernise. They deliver glossy reports and training manuals. But who checks whether the fire doors actually close? Who audits the audits? The answer, as the bodies in Gurugram show, is no one.
The building's owner, a real estate developer with ties to a major political party, has gone missing. Uncovered documents suggest he had applied for multiple loans using the same property as collateral. Money laundering investigations are now underway. But the bodies won't be brought back by a financial audit.
UK regulators should be asking themselves some hard questions. When you sell a safety system, you sell a promise. If that promise is broken 4,500 miles away, does the blood wash back to London? Sources close to the British Standards Institution say they have no legal liability. Of course they don't. But they have a moral one.
This fire will be forgotten by next week's news cycle. Another tragedy in a faraway country. But the pattern is unmistakable: money flows one way, responsibility flows the other. And the dead are left to count the cost of someone else's negligence.
