City school forms in-house emergency response team

Thiruvananthapuram: As part of equipping schools to deal with emergency situations like fire, a demonstration and rescue drill was organized at Saraswathi Vidyalaya,Vattiyoorkavu, in association with Foundation of Development Action (FDA), Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA), Kerala Fire and Rescue Services, General Hospital, IMA and Kerala Police. Around 1,000 students studying in classes VIII, IX and XI and 134 teaching and non-teaching staff of the school participated in the drill.
The drill was to save 24 students who were ‘trapped’ in the second floor of the building as a fire breaks out. The in-house emergency response team (ERT) of the school comprising teaching and non-teaching staff of the school, soon got into the act, managing the panicked students and initiating quick responses required for safe evacuation from the building. The ERT ‘rescued’ 10 students before A 14-member team from Chenkalchoola ‘reached’ there and ‘saved’ the remaining students.

According to FDA executive director Ramesh Krishnan, the staff of the school was given training in basic life support (BLS) and first-aid treatment through multiple sessions, which began on April 27. “Around 42 teachers were given BLS training and another 46 teachers were given firefighting training by Kerala fire & rescue team, while 21 drivers and conductors of the school buses were also given awareness on stress management and safe driving practices,” he said.

“The main objective behind organizing such drills is to make the staff and students aware and not to panic at such emergency situations. Usually, in cases of fire, people panic and trigger chaos while attempting to escape. Because of the orientation session, we were able to maintain order while the students were evacuated safely,” said fire & rescue Chenkalchoola station officer G Sureshkumar.

Saraswathi Vidyalaya principal Shylaja O R said that the orientation sessions turned out to be productive.

“Our ERT team managed to maintain order and evacuate around 1,000 students within five minutes,” she said. tnn