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Fire accidents are happening in frightening succession in a matter of minutes somewhere in the country. Most of these are due to human error. Hence, the need to repeat the same ‘be careful’ story again and again through various avenues to create awareness and stop accidents. Likewise, there is need for new initiatives and innovations to deal with threats.

Indian Institute of Public Administration J&K Regional Branch (IIPA JKRB) in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Government of India, on Tuesday, October 11 organized a workshop on ‘Essence of Fire Safety’ which was attended by over 125 participants from various stakeholders in government and private sector. Rajiv Narang, Director, Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), DRDO in his keynote address informed that as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat initiative of Prime Minister, CFEES has started developing indigenous products for fire safety which meets the global standards.

He informed the gathering about nano safety regulations, eco-friendly disposal, use of bio-formulations in fire safety, fire suppression technologies, linear thermal detectors, structured firefighting suits, fire suppression gel being done by scientists at DRDO.

In his address, Mr. Narang pointed said that new technologies should be put to effective use and there is an urgent need to reprioritize our thinking while designing buildings and a greater sense of responsibility on the part of the citizens can prevent disasters from fire. Dr. Sudershan Kumar, Former DG, DRDO and Special Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Government of India spoke about the concept of ‘Fire Triangle’ saying that safety measures can prevent collateral damages.

Later three technical sessions were held on “Development of State-of-the-Art Fire Safety Products and Technologies” by Dr K.C Wadhwa, Associate Director, CFEES; “Status of Fire Safety in India” by Prashant Lonkar; and ‘A case study of a Fire Incident’ by Pankaj Chawla, Scientist ‘D’.