Training on fire safety measures for nurses

Kolkata: Bengal government has started giving training on fire safety measures to nurses in hospitals across the city.

"The Disaster management includes trauma care section. It says that each and every staff should be trained on fire safety We have already started giving training on fire safety measures to nurses. The main objective of giving such training is to make them aware how to evacuate the burning premises and rescue safely during such incidents," said Javed Khan, State Disaster Management minister.

In the wake of AMRI Hospital tragedy 2011 where 91 people were killed, the Mamata Banerjee government had instructed hospitals

(both private and government) to appoint fire safety officers and supervisors to train their staff.

The hospitals were also told to build ramps from the top-most floors. The ramps could be used to leave the premises when the lifts are closed in case a fire breaks out.

However, appointing a fire safety official has now become compulsory in government and private hospitals.

"Fire services department under the leadership of Sujit Bose, state minister for Fire and Emergency Services, is doing well," said Khan, who was the fire and emergency services minister in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet earlier.

It might be mentioned that the state Fire and Emergency Services department is also introducing two drones to get exact locations of fire sites in high-rises, which firefighters often find difficult to identify.

This apart, the robots are being procured for safety and security of the firefighters.

A senior official in the department said that the fire balls will be effective in very narrow and congested places or in locked buildings where physical entry is extremely difficult.

These are used for firefighting in a number of foreign countries as well as in some other states in the country, particularly to extinguish fire in locked buildings.