Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Mock fire drill at LPG plant

MADURAI: It was around noon on Tuesday. The siren at a private liquefied gas bottling plant on Madurai-Aruppukottai highway went off as one of the tanks caught fire. Scores of workers were seen running for shelter towards the main gate.

Few minutes later, a Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Service Department fire tender arrived at the scene.

Along with the plant staff and workers, they fought for sometime to put off the blaze. Two persons involved in fire fighting were injured. They were rescued from the flames and rushed for medical attention.

The interesting part is there was no fire in the first place.

It was only a mock drill to check the preparedness of the staff and the Fire Service department to handle an emergency situation.

At a debriefing session, every official, staff and security men came forward to explain their role in the drill.

Not only the Terminal Manager, J. Babu, and the Safety Officer, V. Logesan, but also an official from the Finance Department, an employee from the stores and the security man at the gate were among those who had a defined role in fighting fire and rescuing those trapped.

While someone informed the Fire Service, ambulance and local police station, one of the security men kept the emergency exit ready.

Another helped the parked vehicles to move away to safety. Someone kept the fire proximity suit and stretchers ready and others joined the fire fighters to provide them assistance.

Later, the Divisional Fire Officer, V. Ramachandran, told the staff not to venture near the scene of fire without breath apparatus.

He also advised the rescue personnel to move in two teams to safeguard themselves.

Mr. Ramachandran asked them to act swiftly when more than one person was trapped in the fire.

Additional Divisional Fire Officer Kuppusamy and Station Fire Officer (Madurai) R. Shanmugaraj were present.

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