Indian Railways Puts Out New SOP for Staff to Deal with Train Fires

Indian Railways had set up Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on incidents of fire, which direct the staff how they should go about when a running train catches fire. Recently, a spate of incidents including the fire in running Shatabdi earlier this year in March made the Railway Ministry ponder on the SOPs. A refined set of dos and don’ts have been made and the ministry also decided to provide training to its staff to tackle similar situations in near future. The aim is to prevent loss of life and minimise damage to property if a train catches fire.

As per the new SOPS, in case of fire in a train, the staff is supposed to advise passengers to crawl on the floor instead of running. The training material explained that more people expire due to suffocation rather than burning. It highlighted that during fire, poisonous gases such as CO, CO2 circulate in the upper part as they are lighter, while oxygen remains in the lower part. Passengers must be told to cover their nostrils with wet clothes.

According to the SOP document, the typical time available for rescuing people is just a few minutes as the smoke fills up quickly, leaving the passengers disoriented. The staff has been informed that smoke can cause suffocation and loss of consciousness in mere 2 minutes.

However, fire in personal clothing leads to unconsciousness in hardly 10-15 seconds. If proper action is not taken in course of time, it might lead to death or incapacitation in 5 minutes.

The SOP advised the train staff to not give anything orally to the injured. But, it further read that if medical treatment is delayed, Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) drinks can be given to the person.

It has also been recommended to form an Instant Action Team on fire in each train as a routine. The team will include, the drivers, guard, TTE and other staff. Pantry and cleaning staff will also be a part of the action team. Mobile numbers of these staff should be with railway officials in each train journey so that in case of fire coordination is instant.

In total, there are 18 fire extinguishers in each running train, the staff has also been trained to use them.

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