KOCHI: When faced with an emergency, the average Malayali slips into panic mode. Many do not know how to respond to a high-pressure situation — be it a sudden fire in the building or a colleague suffering from a heart attack, and end up waiting for the fire force or the police to handle the issue.
But there is no reason to worry, because ‘Dial 101’ is here to save the day. A Facebook page managed by four firemen of Kadavanthra Fire and Rescue Station — Prajin Prakash, Shebi Mon, Benjamin A J and Sandeep Mohanan, ‘Dial 101’ provides tips for the public on how to deal with emergency situations through videos. The page has already become a hit, garnering 53k likes and 74k followers so far. “Alarmingly, very few people know how to respond during an emergency. We wanted to change this,” says Prajin.
The team’s first video was on how to make stretchers during the time of a flood. Recently, after a Wayanad student died of snakebite in school, the group posted a video on what to do when someone has been bit by a snake. The video became quite popular with over 30 lakh views and 60,000 shares.