Thiruvananthapuram: Fire drill has crying wolf effect' on techies

Thiruvananthapuram: The routine fire drill at Technopark has turned a mockery with techies not responding to the emergency. Many techies preferred to stay put in their cubicles without evacuating during the fire alarm. As per the guidelines under the National Building Code (NBC), it’s mandatory to organise a minimum of two mock fire drills every year.

“They inform us a day before if there is a mock drill. I don’t take part if I am engaged in my work. If there is a real emergency situation I know how to respond. I think if they want a serious response from us, they shouldn’t inform us that they are planning for a mock fire drill,” said Aneesh Mohan, a techie.

A top official of Technopark said that mock drills are held twice every year. “We organise drills for each building and techies are well aware of how to respond during such emergencies. They gather at the assembly point after every mock drill and we hold a session on emergencies and how they should be responding during real emergencies,” said the official.

Most of the companies have an emergency response team and they know how to respond during emergencies. “No major fire mishap has happened on the campus in the past decade,” the official added.

Rajeev Krishnan of Prathidhwani – the welfare organisation of IT employees – said that big companies with a large number of employees always take part in such fire drills. 

“In buildings like Thejaswini and Nila, there are hundreds of companies and it’s hard to coordinate. Otherwise, we all take part in the drills. I think nobody should be ignoring such drills,” said Rajeev.