A siren was set off to alert the public of an impending disaster and a building collapse saw people trapped in the debris choked by smoke, even as volunteers rushed to the spot to rescue those trapped inside.
This was a simulated scene and part of a demonstration on rescue and safety by personnel of the Civil Defence Organisation, Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, in collaboration with the Mysuru Division of South Western Railway.
Organised at the Mysuru railway station premises on Thursday, the demonstration was part of an exercise to create greater public awareness on the importance on training civilian population to handle emergency situations during disasters.
A team of 54 personnel from Varanasi participated in the exercise during which they shared their expertise in what was described as a mutual learning experience between the two collaborating teams.
The core element involved in the exercise was maximum utilisation of the available resources to provide aid during the initial few minutes that can help save lives.
National Civil Defence College in Nagpur trains the instructors who in turn train the personnel in different divisions. The demonstrations will be held in Bengaluru on Saturday and subsequently at Chennai before the team returns to Varanasi, according to the Senior Civil Defence Inspector A.N. Mishra, who is in charge of the exercise and demonstration.
The local coordinator, Parthasarthy, who is an instructor for civil defence in Mysuru, said that the training involves rescuing, providing first-aid and shifting them to the hospital.
The employees are trained at Nagpur which has 16 types of training to handle any eventuality and more recently a similar training institute has been established at Varanasi.
The Railway Civil Defence in Mysuru is located at the Ashokapuram Workshop who assist and coordinate with the members of the National Disaster Response Force in any eventuality in and around Mysuru. Additional Divisional Railway Manager P. Ram and other officials were present.
