Bhopal: The fire department of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation has launched an intensive campaign to check on coaching institutes in the city to find out whether they are adhering to fire safety norms. This follows the tragedy in Surat (Gujarat) on Friday, that left 23 teenage students of a coaching class dead and seven critically injured. There is nothing wrong in ensuring that public places are equipped to deal with fire incidents. However, fire experts say that homes, too, are vulnerable to fire as public places.
How prepared we, as individuals and families, are in dealing with fire and more importantly, in preventing it? Free Press Journal explored the issue and the results were appalling. Barring one, none of the families contacted by this reporter had any idea of how to deal with fire incidents. Pinky Verma, a homemaker said, “Till now, we never felt the need to do anything for fire safety at home. But after this incident, I will make my children memorise the emergency numbers like that of the fire brigade,” she said. Geeta Gogade, who runs a beauty parlour doesn’t know the fire brigade number. She admitted that there is nothing in her home that can be used to douse fire.
Prashant Raghuvanshi, a student, said that he has the fire brigade number in his mobile but doesn’t remember it. When asked whether there is anything at all at his home for fire fighting, he replied in the negative. However, Suchita Talreja, a homemaker was the sole exception. “We have a fire extinguisher at home and I have pasted a list of emergency numbers on the wall of my kitchen.”
