A fire broke out in Phoenix School, located in the Makarpura area of Vadodara city of Gujarat on Friday, June 24. Thick smoke engulfed the multi-storey school building, as the flames erupted due to a short-circuit. Over 500 students were evacuated to safety.
Jaydeep Gadhvi, sub-fire officer of Makarpura fire station, informed that the incident occurred in the morning when the secondary and higher secondary students were in their classrooms. "Only one student sustained a minor knee injury in the entire operation," he said, as per a PTI report.
Gadhvi had been a part of the rescue operation along with his men. His team had rushed to the school at about 9:30 am. "The school was a ground plus four-storey structure and each floor had four air-conditioned classrooms," he said. "We quickly realised that a short circuit in the MCB switchboard on the third floor had caused the fire. Though the blaze was minor, thick smoke had covered the entire third floor. While students of the first and second floors managed to come out in time, students on the third and fourth floors were stuck, as there was zero visibility," he elaborated.
"Using breathing apparatus sets, two firemen entered the building and doused the blaze on the third floor and then opened the windows to clear the smoke. After the smoke cleared, we evacuated over 500 children safely from the main and emergency exits of the building using a ladder," Gadhvi stated, as mentioned in the PTI report.
