Fire safety workshop held at Unnayan Bhavan

A fire safety awareness workshop was recently held at the Unnayan Bhavan, which is the office of the Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA), the administrative body in charge of Salt Lake Sector V. During the workshop, failure of Sector V offices to meet fire safety standards were intensely discussed. On this regard, NDITA’s chairman Debashis Sen said, “Many buildings have built illegal mezzanine floors to accommodate more employees. These are not mentioned in their building plans. Other offices turn off sprinklers so employees can smoke indoors”. The sector V of Salt Lake is the hub of IT companies where work hours at times gets erratic and electronic equipment like computers, air conditioners, and other machines end up working non-stop due to which heating issues arise. It is due to the heating issues that short circuit takes place and fire breaks out. The firefighters demonstrated basic fire fighting techniques in the workshop. People were also taught to use the correct type of fire extinguishers - water extinguishers for fires started by wood, paper, jute, cotton, hydrogen and carbon dioxide-based extinguishers for fires involving petrol, kerosene, diesel and LPG. Jagmohan, Director General of the Fire and Emergency services department said, “If handled properly, even a child can stop a fire in the first two-and-half minutes, that is the most crucial time to stop a fire”. Minister of Fire and Emergency Services Department Sujit Bose was also present in the workshop.