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The National Fire Safety
Week: April 14 to 20 |
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On the Friday of April 14, 1944, the Stikine was anchored at
the Victoria Dock of Bombay Port. It had come from Brikenhead in
Britain only a couple of days earlier. The steamer was carrying
ammunition meant for an attack on Japan. Even the most fanciful
would not have imagined that the "angel of destruction" was aboard
the ship. The Stikine caught fire when the clock had whirled past
noon. A couple of huge explosions followed, one quite a while after
the other. When the dust and smoke had settled down, hundreds were
left dead and more than a dozen ships destroyed. Victoria Dock and
Prince's Dock had been demolished. It took days to quell the blaze.
The Bombay Fire Brigade and the Bombay Fire Salvage Corps had lost a
good number of their men in the conflagration. April 14 stands as a grim reminder of what great destruction a little carelessness can cause. Every year on this day the nation commits afresh to heart the lesson it has learnt from the tragedy. The day is observed as National Fire Safety Day. The National Fire Safety Week is observed from April 14 to 20. THE HUMAN mind can cross a thousand bridges even before it sees one. The power of imagination has been man's greatest ally in his struggle for survival in a hostile world. No other animal can conjure up images of danger in an undefined future and rehearse its responses to such hypothetical situations. |
