With summer around the corner, GHMC takes up fire safety drills

Hyderabad: In view of the approaching summer, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) Enforcement Vigilance & Disaster Management (EV&DM) wing is pulling up socks to battle fire-related incidents in the city. The department initiated awareness programmes and emergency evacuation drills by DRF teams across Greater Hyderabad to inculcate a sense of awareness on how to respond and escape during an emergency.

For the Fire Services department, the summer season is considered tough as its personnel usually end up battling multiple fires. Majority of fires occur in scrap godowns, furniture-making units and small industries where combustible material is stored for manufacturing various products.

To ensure preparedness of fire related incidents, an action plan has been initiated with regular awareness and evacuation drills at various places, including most vulnerable spots/buildings like schools, hospitals, shopping malls, office buildings, hotels and banquet halls, where large numbers of people gather.

According to EV&DM, teams under supervision of Station Fire Officer (SFO) demonstrate and involve inmates in practice ways of escaping from fire, evacuate buildings during emergencies, operation of fire-fighting equipment, first-aid, CPR to save lives and making citizens on ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ in case of emergencies.

On Wednesday the DRF teams of the EV&DM conducted emergency evacuation drills at St Joseph Junior and Degree Colleges in Tolichowki, Navketan Complex (Secunderabad), Ocean - The ABM School in Akbarbagh, Malakpet, South India Shopping Mall, Kothapet, and Jaya Bharathi Meadows Shopping Complex, Suchitra X Roads.

N Prakash Reddy, EV&DM director, said the teams conducted over 50 awareness programmes, including 22 at public places, 18 shopping malls/showrooms, nine schools/colleges and at a hospital in the last two weeks. “The EV & DM trained 43 personnel of six municipal ULBs in batch-1 and 39 of 12 municipal ULBs in batch-2 on disaster rescue operations,” he added.

Recently Director-General of Fire Services Y Nagi Reddy conducted a review meeting with all district fire officers in the State and discussed their preparedness for the summer. He said to meet natural calamities in future the department trained 72 personnel for 15 days in various rescue techniques. They include basic flood and rope rescue.

Reddy appreciated the personnel for successful completion of training and instructed DFOs to utilise their services across the State. Officials of GHMC, Fire Services, TSSPDCL and HMWS&SB will be coordinating during fire mishaps round-the-clock.

For evacuation drill and awareness, owners of buildings/managements of establishments like schools, hospitals, shopping malls can call the helpline and request for mock drills. Citizens can also report any unauthorised/illegal storage of hazardous chemicals/materials in residential buildings.Their identity will be kept confidential. Help line: 040-29555500, Mobile No. 9000113667.