A student takes part in the mock drill in Patna on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Jan. 21: Students of Devipad Chaudhary Shahid Smarak High School, also known as Miller School, had a field day today playing the role of firefighters and enacting mock fire drills and rescue missions.

The programme was organised collectively by the Union home ministry and the state government.

Students aged 12 to 18, along with the firefighters, demonstrated operations like rescue drills, fireman lift, chair knot, rescuing people from smoke chambers, crawling rescue and others.

State fire officer Ramesh Chandra said several teams had been formed in the school for the fire safety drills.

“Students were divided into groups like awareness campaign team, evacuating team, search and rescue team, firefighting team, first-aid team, site safety team and transport management teams. Every team had three to four children, supervised by a teacher. The kids were taught basic firefighting mechanisms. The idea behind the training was to educate children and teachers about the basic firefighting methods and disaster management. The programme is being organised by the home ministry in one school each in district across the country under ‘One Day, One Time, Whole Country’ initiative,” said Santosh Gupta, additional director of the fire project cell of Union home ministry, who was supervising the operations.

State fire officer Ramesh Chandra said initiatives like this would help children learn basic methods required during a disaster. “A few years back, a major fire in a Tamil Nadu school left 90 children dead. We should find ways to ensure that these kinds of incidents never happen again. The incident is a reminder that importance should be given to fire safety norms in schools,” he said.

After completion of the drills, Noor Mohammad Siddiqui (16), a Class XI student, said: “This was the first time I was holding a fire extinguisher and it was easy to operate. Now I have the confidence to douse off fire in case of an accident.”

Most of the children were upbeat and felt that such workshops help them prepare in case of fire mishaps.

Students were also taught to handle different branch pipes connected to the fire engine vehicle, live demonstration of crisis, rescue methods, wet drill and rescue ladders.

“I learnt how to climb up the rescue ladder and carry down a person tied on my shoulder through the same ladder within two-three minutes. I am feeling very confident now that if the need arises, I will be able to help people,” said Siddarth Rathod, a student who was selected for the search and rescue team.

Suneel Gupta, station fire officer, Patna said: “Awareness about fire services from a young age is very important for safety.”