India's Coaching Centers Exploit a Building Code Gap, Lucknow Fire Shows

At least 15 students, mostly aged 16–18, died in a fire at an animation training center in Lucknow on June 22. The center occupied a commercial building not designed for high-occupancy education. India's National Building Code requires fire clearance before such conversions, but state-level enforcement remains inconsistent. Resource-constrained fire services lack inspectors to audit the country's proliferating coaching centers, allowing non-compliant operations to run for years before disaster strikes.