Fire Evacuation Drills - A Real Necessity followed by few

Last year, my company introduced the concept of yearly fire drills. In a country like India, where fire accidents are numerous but knowledge very limited; the necessity of ordinary citizens to learn fire drill and evacuation process is very high; sadly, very few do.

If we indeed knew the basics of evacuation - incidents like

• Kumbakonnam School Fire: 80+ children between 8 - 10 years perished when the tatched roof of their school building caught fire from a nearby hotel)
• Uphaar Cinema Fire: 57 Cinema goers of various ages perished when the sparks from a transformer turned an evening of watching a movie (Border) into a death trap
• Erwadi Asylum Fire: 25 Mentally challenged people, chained to posts were consumed by fire when the asylum staff fled on first signs of fire leaving those unfortunate souls to weather agony before death came by

Every person who heard of these great tragedy would certainly be moved. Of the people today, i know quite a few, who would volunteer to help the victims as well as do social service to correct these errors.

However, work always begins at home. People should learn about fire evacuation drills and be prepared to face it & that would ensure that the tragedy of material loss will not be compounded by human loss.