Earthquake: Bangalore fire dept headquarters evacuated after lunch

Panic gripped the city’s fire and emergency services headquarters during the lunch hour on Wednesday, when the building was evacuated following tremors caused as fallout of an earthquake that rattled Banda Aceh in Indonesia.

A senior official at the third floor ordered evacuation of the building after tremors were experienced. Seconds after the tremor, the control room got flooded with calls from residents.

The tremors occurred when the staffers were relaxing during the lunch hour. “While having lunch, I suddenly felt the table was shaking. Then I noticed that the wardrobe too was shaking. On touching the ground I realised it was a tremor and immediately alerted the staff to vacate the premises and go to an open space,” a senior fire officer said. Hearing the commotion, senior officials at the ground floor rushed out and when I was explaining to them about the tremor, the control room started receiving a flood of frantic calls, which confirmed that it was indeed a tremor and was widespread in the city, he added.

Fire and emergency services director BG Chengappa said he sounded an alert to his staff and passed the message to all rescue centres to be on their toes. The department is fully equipped to tackle any kind of situation, but thankfully the city was spared of any eventuality, he added.

“As part of the standard operating procedure, we are advising the callers on the dos and don’ts during such situations. However after media’s extensive coverage, the number of calls came down,” he said.