Firefighting mock drill at Panjab University fails

Radhika Pasrija

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Chandigarh, January 6

It was discovered during a recent mock drill for the firefighting system at the administrative block of Panjab University (PU) that, in case a blaze erupts, fire motors installed on the campus would not function.

Faulty connections

The officials took note of the fact that all electrical connections given to fire motors in the past were wrong and would be of no use in case of a fire incident

The PU officials who participated in the mock drill were DUI Prof Rumina Sethi, Registrar Prof YP Verma, Senate member Dr Parveen Goyal, Chief Security Officer Vikram Singh and Executive Engineer RK Rai. The officials took note of the fact that all electrical connections given to fire motors in the past were wrong and would be of no use in case of a fire incident.

The issue was raised by Dr Goyal, following which the release of a recent tender for the firefighting system was halted. He suggested that a separate electric connection be provided to fire motors in such a way that there are two outgoing connections from the genset, one for the building and another for the fire motor directly.

To avoid the purchase of new gensets, fire motors can be connected to the genset placed in the adjoining building, he said.