Basic Fire Safety!

I always give high importance for Work place safety and have been an ERT (Emergency Response Team) member for some years now. Today, my employer had organized an in-house training session on fire safety. Mr. Senthil from Usha Fire Safety Systems was the trainer for the same and he did amazingly well to keep the session active and interesting.  Some take-aways:

• "Save yourself by yourself" - Swami Vivekananda. Be yourself. Don't panic and use your common sense to react to the situation. Common sense + Presence of Mind + Attitude = Life Saver.
• "Be a Hero. Always say, 'I have no fear'" - Swami Vivekananda. ERT member should be confident in what he / she is doing. By being so, you can make others listen to you. Confident faces make a lot of differences.
• Everyone should know the emergency contact numbers: 100 - Police, 101 - Fire, 102 - Ambulance, 103 - Traffic controller, 104 - Medical Consultancy, 108 - Emergency Service. Please don't make any fake calls to these toll free numbers. (It was learnt that fire station gets 1000+ fake calls everyday. Hyderabad police gets 3000+ fake calls - #awesomeindianthing??)
• Fire Safety products - Should be of good quality, Should be maintained properly, One should have knowledge about the product.
• In case of fire, Find out the fire, Inform even a small spark, Respond, Evacuate.
• Fire requires - Fuel, Oxygen, Heat. If you block the supply of any of these, fire can be cut down.
• Ways of fire fighting - Starvation (Removal of fuel), Blanketing (Cutting off the Oxygen), Cooling (Reducing the Heat).

Senthil talked about how to fight fires without extinguishers, LPG & domestic safety and some tips of evacuation. After this session, there was a practical session on using the different types of fire extinguishers. Also, various safety systems in-place in the building were explained. Overall it was very very informative and I am feeling proud to be an ERT member. Be aware of these basic fire safety measures and become a life saver.  

-- Varun