Half a million Pune children have received fire safety training
PUNE, January 22, 2020: More than half a million children in the city have received fire safety training through a joint initiative of Safe Kids Foundation, Honeywell, and the fire departments of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), and Pune Cantonment. The Safe Kids at Home program focuses on prevention and reduction of burns and scalds among children under 14 years old in Pune. Besides covering students in 1,227 schools, the program has also reached out to nearly half a million parents from 250 communities.
Speaking at an event to mark the National Fire Evacuation and Drill Day, Mr. Prashant Ranpise,Chief Fire Officer, Fire Department, PMC, said,“Fire safety education for students is highly imperative in today’s world. We often come across cases where short circuits, livewires, and leaking gas connections lead to untoward fire accidents. In such a situation, fire safety knowledge is extremely essential. We conduct periodic fire drills in collaboration with Safe Kids Foundation and have achieved a higher success rate in mitigating such incidents in the last few years.’’
National Fire and Evacuation Drill Day is observed nationwide every year on January 21 to promote fire emergency preparedness.In Pune, Safe Kids Foundation and the city’s fire departments organized 32 fire and evacuation drills in schools, communities, and housing societies. An inter-school ‘junior fire safety champion’ contest was held in which students from 32 schools across PMC and PCMC participated.
Mr. Devendra Potphode, Chief Fire Officer, PMRDA,said, “For the past one year we have been associated with Safe Kids Foundation. Today is an important day for us as we will be undertaking activities to encourage fire safety practices among students and citizens in general and hope that together we can ensure safety of our state.’’
Dr. Cinthia Pinto, Program Director, SKF, said, “In our endeavor to educate students and parents about the importance of fire prevention and fire emergency preparedness, we have trained 5,56,236 children from 1,227 schools and 4,73,979 parents from 250 communities. Our objective is to help students become responsible citizens and advocates of fire safety and thus contribute to making Pune a safe city in India “.
Safe Kids at Home is a research-based program that uses cutting-edge, experiential, and fun educational tools targeted at different age groups, to spread fire safety awareness.
