lt was early hours of 30th December 1994. I was behind Gulf Air counter at the Mumbai Airport to board a flight to Abu Dhabi with onward flight to Bahrain and finally Dhahran in Saudi Arabia.
I reported to duty the next day in Heba Fire and Safety Equipment Company Dammam, as a Fire Protection Design Engineer.
Over a period of time I fell in love with my profession, as it is meant to protect life and property.
My 28 years of experience did involve occasional working in the heat and dust of Arabia. However, majority of the times we remain in the comfort zone of our air-conditioned office.
Fire System Designers are distant cousins of professional fire fighters. Firefighters risk their lives to ensure that our life and property are safe.
Firefighters not only respond to calls that involve fires. They respond to various emergency situations like floods, rescue, etc. which requires them to be on standby all the time, sometimes without even knowing what dangers to expect.
The first thing that comes to mind when they think of a firefighter is a big fire truck (Red in India and some other colours elsewhere), fireproof uniforms, a hard fire hat, an axe, and a huge hose that has a very high water pressure. While noting these factors, we ignore numerous daily sacrifices that firefighters make that no salary will ever be able to repay.
In order to express my gratitude to our Fire Fighters, I arranged a small get together at Bhatkal Fire Station, followed by breakfast.
It was attended by Principal, College Board Secretary, and Prof. Shrishail Bhat from Anjuman Institute of Technology and Management, Bhatkal.
While expressing my gratitude for their rescue efforts during recent Bhatkal floods, I urged the entire team to develop a culture of morning talk to promote Knowledge sharing, based on real incidents and insights gained through reading or watching online videos.
Another concern discussed was insufficient raid width or turning radius for fire trucks due to haphazard unplanned residential areas in Bhatkal.
