Fire brigade to train senior citizens and women to fight fire
MUMBAI: From January 2022, the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) will begin an awareness drive in a phased manner to arm senior citizens and homemakers with basic firefighting skills. The training will be free of cost and will be held during weekends in the command centres at Byculla, Wadala, Vikhroli, Mankhurd and Borivli. Explaining why MFB has decided to rope in senior citizens in the drive, Hemant Parab, chief fire officer, Mumbai Fire Brigade informed, “Several senior citizens hold key positions in the management bodies of the housing societies across Mumbai. Sensitising them with fire prevention acts will enable them to carry out regular maintenance in their premises and also, they will be able to identify and alert us about discrepancy or malfunction in fire equipment of their buildings.”
Last month, the fire brigade sent notices to more than 90 residential buildings for noncompliance with fire safety norms. MFB discovered during their regular inspections that members of several housing societies are not aware of the maintenance of the firefighting systems. “Besides teaching and sensitising them with provisions of the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, basic firefighting techniques like operating an extinguisher, maintaining the refuge areas, evacuation techniques and household items that can be used to douse the fire, will be included in the training session,” shared Parab.
Homemakers will be trained under the unique module which has been jointly organised with an NGO, Project Mumbai, as the fire brigade found in its case studies that women and children are some of the most vulnerable during fire incidents.
Parab informed, “Several fire incidents occur due to cylinder blasts at home. The idea is to give homemakers a basic understanding of how to control the flame at its initial stage. The NGO will be providing all the logistic support and help people get registered for the course.”
Shishir Joshi, founder and CEO of Project Mumbai said that the overall programme has been divided into four categories. While the first two involves senior citizens and housewives, the third and fourth categories will be arranging awareness drives and campaigns at schools and municipal ward levels.