“Fire safety is an important aspect in disaster management. However, several times, we found, people are not aware about controlling or extinguishing fire. Especially, there are increasing number of fires caused due to electricity and we must know the safety precautions to take and how to control fire from spreading before the fire brigade arrives,” says Anil Maruti Aware, Deputy Controller from the Directorate of Civil Defence. He was speaking on “Disaster Management: Fire Safety” and understanding risks associated with different kinds of fires, including chemical fires.
Moneylife Foundation with Police Reforms Watch & Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and with support from Saraswat Bank has launched the 12-week program (every Wednesday) that aims to spread knowledge about protecting yourself, your rights, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), cybercrime and economic offences. Today was the second such session.
Sucheta Dalal, Founder Trustee of Moneylife Foundation also informed the audience about upcoming events under the 12-Week series, “Police & You”. She said, “Over the next few weeks, we will have well-known officials and lawyers as speakers. This includes, Vilas Tupe, former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), noted lawyer Adv Satish ManeShinde, Mr Ramesh Mahale (former ACP), who successfully conducted Ajmal Kasab case investigation, Adv Mrunalini Deshmukh, who is one of the best lawyer on women’s issues and retired ACP Ramesh Shriwastav.”
The event was held in the well-appointed auditorium of Saraswat Bank headquarters, Eknath Thakur Bhavan.
The second session of the 12-week series on “Disaster Management: Fire Safety” was conducted by Anil Maruti Aware, and Manohar Keshav Mhatre from the Directorate of Civil Defence of Maharashtra Govt. Mr Mhatre, the Deputy Controller at CDO for Area-I of Greater Mumbai, conducted the session. He explained the chemistry behind fire saying, “Fire is a chemical chain reaction which takes place with the evolution of heat and light.”
He said there are three basic elements in a fire, oxygen, fuel and heat. “Normal air contains 21% of oxygen, which is more than what is required for the fire. Fuels come in different states like gas, liquid and solids. Heat sources help fire to reach ignition temperature.”
There are four principles that are used to extinguish the fire: starvation, smothering, cooling and breaking the chain reaction. Starvation means removing un-burnt material from the fire area. In smothering, the supply of oxygen is cut from the fire area. In cooling method, heat is removed from the burning material or fire area, and breaking of chain reaction is a chemical process, Mr Aware said.
He explained phases of burning, modes of spreading the fire with examples. Mr Aware then informed the audience about different types of fire extinguishers and their usage and the need to properly maintain such equipments.
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