Fire drills encouraged

Origin Energy Papua New Guinea Limited Service and Sika Fire Ltd teamed up to conduct live fire drills for students and parents at Sabama Baptist Christian Academy School in Port Moresby last Friday.
Programme facilitator and Origin’s health safety environment coordinator Marisa Oasora said the trainings were aimed at educating students on what to do in the event of fires and how to use different fire extinguishers.
“It is important to educate our kids so they know what to do when they are in danger of fire,” she said.
Oasora said they were encouraged by a fire incident at Five Mile some months ago to conduct the awareness trainings.
Sika’s fire trainer Don Micky said knowledge of fire should be extended to kids at schools and communities.
“Fire is unpreventable, therefor kids must be educated so they know what to do,” he said.
During the trainings, Micky told the parents and students that there were six classes of fires.
They were wood fire, paper and clothes fire, flammable liquid fire, gas fire, metal fire, electrical fire and kitchen fire.
Micky warned the students that electrical fire was the most dangerous and must be handled by switching off a main switch in a house.
He said other fires could be handled with extinguishers. The trainings were seen as a form of appreciation by the companies for the support they got from the community. “The parents of the students are our customers so in a way, we are showing appreciation by giving to their kids,” Micky said.
The fire drills involved students and parents practising what they must do to escape safely from a building in a fire situation.