Street plays, mock drills organised to create awareness on fire safety across city

THANE: In an attempt to spread awareness on fire safety and to ensure that residents are well informed about the basic dos and the don’ts in case of an emergency, the Thane fire brigade and regional disaster management cell (RDMC) have been conducting mock drills at various areas across the city since Monday.
This was done to observe the Disaster Risk Reduction week, which is from from October 9 to 13.

In recent times, a number of fire cases have come up, especially in residential complexes. Many residents have lost their lives also due to this. In order to make people aware about what to do in case of a fire, as many as six fire and evacuation drills and a terrorist attack mock drill was carried out at various schools and societies in the city.

Santosh Kadam, disaster officer at the RDMC, said, “We conducted an array of activities from Monday to Saturday wherein we not only demonstrated a mock drill, but also successfully organized a mock rescue operation. This was done in public places like a mall, schools and even some residential buildings at Shree Nagar and Diva-Shil Road. Apart from the regular fire drills, a terrorist attack mock drill was also carried out at Thane police school on Friday. We tried to cover all aspects of fire safety and even held a question-answer session with residents, rescue operators and fire personnel.”

On the last day, the departments even arranged for several competitions for children with an intent to spread the message of fire safety using placards, mobile vans and street plays.

“To attract the younger crowd and children we had organized an essay writing and drawing competitions on the theme— fire safety. We had even deployed a mobile van across the city which bombarded messages about the importance of remaining calm, composed and alert during an emergency. There were even street plays that showcased the same messages,” said a civic official.

We conducted an array of activities from Monday to Saturday wherein we not only demonstrated a mock drill, but also successfully organized a mock rescue operation. This was done in public places like a mall, schools and even some residential buildings