Few months ago, I wrote a blog here. This was about importance of data for the researchers and possible loss of data due to accidents. The incident narrated was an accidental fire which broke out in one of our departments. A few students lost valuable data, collected for their Ph.D reseach and which I think is quite an irreparable damage.
Day before yesteday night (15th June, 1am) another accidental fire broke out in our own department. Fortunately, students here have a habit of staying in the lab for a long time.. sometimes as late as early morning. Quite a few students were present in the department then. Unfortunately, I missed this action filled midnight (boohoohoo), since I scheduled a long experiment early next morning and by 1 am, I left for my room.
At around 1 am, few of my friends were coming back from T-board. They spotted smoke coming out from one particular direction.. The labs and rooms in that direction are quite isolated.. isolated in the sense, there is only one short narrow corridor leading to those rooms from the department side. Immediately they alerted all the students present in the department. Here is a situation where we are supposed to inform our secrity office immediately and if possible.. the fire fighters. But none in the department possessed their numbers. This shows how much prepared we are for these kind of situations.. Finally one of my friends rushed to the security office on his bike and informed them. They were very prompt.. and I believe they have good experience too, since there were quite a few similar incidents recently.
In the meantime, other people present in the department were engaged in dousing the fire.. They had to enter through a corridor full of smoke and near zero visibility. Actually, there was a short circuit and this resulted in continuous sparks on one of the switchboards. Just two metres away were a cluster of batteries. The situation was very close, because even if one of those batteries explodes, others will follow and people present there faced a danger as great as losing their own lives. And the fire was obstinate.... as soon as it is doused, the fire reappears due to the sparks... They have already emptied 7 extingushers.. few brought from the nearby department. Our registrar reached the spot in the meantime.. and some people in uniform as well, who suggested to use water. But the students opposed the idea (for good reasons of course). Students successfully prevented the fire from spreading to other areas and from reaching the batteries of course.
Finally an electrician was called in (imagine the hour), who could (fortunately) locate and disconnect the power supply to that particular lab. And finally the fire was doused.
The scariest part (for me) is .. the lab on fire was only 4-5 metres away from where I sit usually, in front of my PC!! Both the rooms are separated by an open space .. the space was full of shrubs and jungle, which is being cleared right now, while I am typing all these. After learning about the incident, the first thing I did was - I brought my external hard disk to my hostel room.. so that even if something goes wrong in the department or lab, a copy of my data will be available with me.. safely. Just as a precaution!!
Moreover, a few of my friends (two names are already nominated, I was informed) are going to get the prestigious (!!?? ;-) ) "Tosscars" for being the best fire fighters in the department for sure (during this coming freshers welcome). May be I'll talk about what these Tosscars all about.. sometime later!
Day before yesteday night (15th June, 1am) another accidental fire broke out in our own department. Fortunately, students here have a habit of staying in the lab for a long time.. sometimes as late as early morning. Quite a few students were present in the department then. Unfortunately, I missed this action filled midnight (boohoohoo), since I scheduled a long experiment early next morning and by 1 am, I left for my room.
At around 1 am, few of my friends were coming back from T-board. They spotted smoke coming out from one particular direction.. The labs and rooms in that direction are quite isolated.. isolated in the sense, there is only one short narrow corridor leading to those rooms from the department side. Immediately they alerted all the students present in the department. Here is a situation where we are supposed to inform our secrity office immediately and if possible.. the fire fighters. But none in the department possessed their numbers. This shows how much prepared we are for these kind of situations.. Finally one of my friends rushed to the security office on his bike and informed them. They were very prompt.. and I believe they have good experience too, since there were quite a few similar incidents recently.
In the meantime, other people present in the department were engaged in dousing the fire.. They had to enter through a corridor full of smoke and near zero visibility. Actually, there was a short circuit and this resulted in continuous sparks on one of the switchboards. Just two metres away were a cluster of batteries. The situation was very close, because even if one of those batteries explodes, others will follow and people present there faced a danger as great as losing their own lives. And the fire was obstinate.... as soon as it is doused, the fire reappears due to the sparks... They have already emptied 7 extingushers.. few brought from the nearby department. Our registrar reached the spot in the meantime.. and some people in uniform as well, who suggested to use water. But the students opposed the idea (for good reasons of course). Students successfully prevented the fire from spreading to other areas and from reaching the batteries of course.
Finally an electrician was called in (imagine the hour), who could (fortunately) locate and disconnect the power supply to that particular lab. And finally the fire was doused.
The scariest part (for me) is .. the lab on fire was only 4-5 metres away from where I sit usually, in front of my PC!! Both the rooms are separated by an open space .. the space was full of shrubs and jungle, which is being cleared right now, while I am typing all these. After learning about the incident, the first thing I did was - I brought my external hard disk to my hostel room.. so that even if something goes wrong in the department or lab, a copy of my data will be available with me.. safely. Just as a precaution!!
Moreover, a few of my friends (two names are already nominated, I was informed) are going to get the prestigious (!!?? ;-) ) "Tosscars" for being the best fire fighters in the department for sure (during this coming freshers welcome). May be I'll talk about what these Tosscars all about.. sometime later!
2 comments:
Its high time i guess the PHD students get to do some drills on disaster management as one of their extra-curricular activities. Also, the IISc should have its own fleet of fire-fighters (they already have?). :)
no they dont have till now!!
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