Prabhat Rahangdale, chief fire officer of the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB), was mentally prepared when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) asked him in March to take up a mammoth task. Mumbai had just registered its first COVID-19 positive case and the BMC wanted to sanitise the nooks and corners of the city. The MFB has 2,700 personnel; 160 of them were chosen to participate in the sanitisation work. The fire brigade had proved its mettle in the past, rescuing people in calamities like the floods in July 2005 and the terror attacks on November 26, 2008. But it was the first time in its 133-year history (it was formed on April 1, 1887) that it had been roped in for a sanitising mission, and that too on this scale.
The MFB was immediately called in after Mumbai registered its first COVID-19 death on March 23. The patient had been admitted to the P.D. Hinduja Hospital in Mahim. The MFB personnel took control of the hospital premises and sanitised it in one day, allowing it to reopen in a couple of days. That significantly boosted the MFB’s confidence.
This story is from the May 18, 2020 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 18, 2020 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Grand Young Master
Seventeen-yearold D. Gukesh has become the youngest player to win the Candidates chess tournament
SPORTING SPIRIT
BADMINTON PLAYER ASHWINI PONNAPPA, 34, IS OFF TO HER THIRD OLYMPICS, THIS TIME WITH A NEW PARTNER, TANISHA CRASTO
PORTRAITS OF A PEOPLE
Etchings by the colonial Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns are getting a new lease of life in an exhibition at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
Centennial Man
A seminal exhibition of K.G. Subramanyan's works in his birth centenary year at Emami Art, Kolkata takes an imaginative and immersive curatorial approach
Rhythms of Nature
ARTIST AND MUSIC COMPOSER GINGGER SHANKAR'S LATEST SINGLE COMBINES SOUTH INDIAN MUSIC WITH INUIT THROAT SINGING
SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND
Kashmiri musician Faheem Abdullah’s debut album Lost; Found is a collaborative effort
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
With its excellent translations, Songs of Tagore makes Rabindrasangit accessible to the non-Bengali reader
Of Freedom and Friendship
T.C.A. RAGHAVAN'S CIRCLES OF FREEDOM FOLLOWS THREE YOUNG MUSLIMS DRAWN INTO THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE
The Razor's Edge
Salman Rushdie's Knife is an eloquent, first-person account of the horrific attack on him. It's also a love story
THE LAST-MILE PUSH
The India Today Smart Money Financial Summit had top experts discussing how technology could be leveraged to widen the reach of personal finance tools