Fire dept conduct safety lectures, demos in hospitals

New Delhi: The Delhi Fire Service has been receiving multiple requests from private and government hospitals here to conduct a “Fire Safety Lecture and Demonstration”, officials said on Thursday.

This comes after a massive fire broke out at a private neonatal hospital in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar last month, killing seven newborn babies. The hospital allegedly operated illegally with an “expired” licence and no clearance from the fire department last month.

“No doubt, after the fire incident, we are receiving more than 75 letters for the fire safety demonstration from different private and government hospitals. We are always happy to help and our teams are visiting for the same purpose,” a senior official of the fire department said.

The official said that the best way to avoid fire situations is to keep inflammable objects away. People must check the dates on fire extinguishers and learn how to operate them. Regular inspection of fire safety norms by the fire department can also avoid such incidents, the official said.

“Small steps can make a big difference,” he said.

“Number of fire-related calls decreased in the last few days. We are also receiving requests for the fire-related NOC. Besides that, we are receiving letters for the fire safety demonstration. One can combat fire if they are trained and can immediately make calls to the fire department. We are sure that quick action will save many lives,” DFS chief Atul Garg said.

DFS said that they have already started special training sessions for the people on how to initially combat the fire or in any case of emergency. “We have already started a realistic computer-generated simulation on tackling fire-related emergencies for the people of the city,” Garg said. He said that the virtual training sessions will be conducted in the DFS stations in Rohini and Dwarka.

“Equipped with 3D screen and glasses, people will learn how to extinguish fires and handle fire-fighting gear such as hoses and fire extinguishers during the training in the centres,” Garg said, adding that each lab can accommodate up to 20 people at a time.

These simulators have been functional since April and are free of cost to experience, he said. Fire-related calls had surged to 183 on May 30 recording a nearly three-fold rise over the single-day calls received by the DFS. From January 1 to May 26, the department had received 8,912 fire-related calls, according to the data shared by the DFS.

DFS had said that they had received 183 calls in 24 hours, ending midnight of May 29, claiming it to be the highest single-day calls recorded so far this year. According to the official data, 55 people were killed due to fire-related incidents this year. More than 300 people were injured. According to the data, 16 people were killed in a fire in January, another 16 in February, 12 in March, four in April, and seven till May 26. Meanwhile, 51 people were injured in January, 42 in February, 62 in March, 78 in April, and 71 on May 26.