Chemical emergency mock drill at a mall in Bengaluru

Demonstrating its preparedness to avert any man-made disasters in the imminent future and respond to a chemical emergency, the regional response centre of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Thursday carried out a mock-drill at the Phoenix mall in Bengaluru.

The successful evacuation of people by the trained and expert battalion of NDRF was hailed by several enforcement agencies.

Recreating a disaster scenario involving piped natural gas (Cooking Gas) leakage at a food court in a prominent and upscale mall, the members of the 10th battalion of NDRF at Mahadevapura, equipped with gadgets to fight Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear disasters, evacuated six people from the disaster site besides sealing leakage pipes to thwart a major disaster. The rescued people were soon rushed to the nearest medical facility. The unit also demonstrated its skills in the management of the busy and tensed crowd using the incident command system.

Prior to the mock drill, the assistant commandant of NDRF battalion in Bengaluru held a coordination meeting with various stakeholders including the Home Department, Fire and Emergency Services and District administration explaining on their role in responding to various types of disasters. Accordingly a mock-drill on chemical emergency in a busy and crowded area like a shopping mall, train disaster was demonstrated on Thursday.

The specialized team of NDRF battalion in Bengaluru was recently pressed into the rescue operation in Dharwad where a four-storied building collapsed killing 19 people. The team, with the assistance of the local fire and emergency services team, not only recovered the dead bodies of the victims but also rescued 57 precious lives from the disaster site.