Team Herald
VASCO: The fifth fire safety mock drill conducted by the disaster management team at Vasco was an utter failure as Public Works Department office miserably failed to respond on time.
The response timing of others was better compared to the PWD which according to Mormugao deputy collector, who is the head of the Disaster Management team, was poorest; he was forced to admit that the exercised failed.
Deputy Collector Mahadev Arondekar said that, for various reasons, none of the departments actually respond on time when real disasters strike. He was anguished over the delayed response of PWD for want of water and other task delegated teams even after being notified of the exercise of mock drill in Vasco.
The mock drill this time was at the Indian Oil Tanking depot in the town. The facility stores aviation turbine fuel and distributes it through the depot. The depot is a critical spot for disaster preparedness and was rightly undertaken for mock drill.
As per the laid down procedures of mock drill, all the respondents were notified of the mock drill. All the authorities were expected to respond on time which they did except for the PWD.
Mormugao Taluka has had almost all kinds of disaster like situations ranging from plane crashes, naphtha pipeline leakage, ammonia filled tanker overturning which endangered human lives and also took some during every incident in the past.
Frustrated at the failure of the drill, Arondekar said, “Instructions were given and it was the duty of the person responsible to evacuate the people inside. A vehicle was also arranged; only the injured persons were taken for medical attention, but the people from the market area who were supposed to be evacuated and moved to a safer place were never evacuated.”
The mistake of not reporting to the incident commander about the persons who remained to be evacuated was also reported and was found to be a communication gap.
“This is only a mock drill; but during the ammonia tanker spill incident, we had to wake up the people in the vicinity at 3 o’clock in the night with the help of police. Evacuation of people is most important during disaster,” the deputy collector said.
“Those who have been given the responsibility of evacuation have to make sure that the job is done and on time,” Arondekar said.
The deputy collector also advised the PWD to arrange for water from their own sources if their regular tanker contractor doesn’t turn up. “It is the lives of people that are at stake and need to be protected during such disasters; processes may follow later,” he maintained.
