A cool splash: The fire drill that brought momentary relief for UIU students

In the relentless heat, amid the mundane routine of classes, students of United International University (UIU) got sweet relief this morning from an unexpected source -- a fire drill.

This morning, UIU's permanent campus in Dhaka's Satarkul hosted a fire drill and building evacuation practice to increase awareness of the fundamental steps that should be taken in the event of an earthquake, building fire, or other such incident.

As part of the exercise, fire service officials sprayed water from a height of at least six or seven storeys onto the open ground in front of the university building, and that is when the students took the opportunity to cool down and have some fun.

On Facebook, a video of the students having fun in the rain went viral.

As the temperature soared to the high thirties in the capital, UIU students were seen walking around on the big field, many with umbrellas. Some were jogging away from the path of water, while others were walking towards the cool relief.

A good number of university employees, students and the personnel of Fire Service and Civil Defence of Bangladesh jointly participated in the hour-long fire drill, said Syed Monirul islam, senior station officer of Baridhara Fire Station.

"A [controlled] fire was lit on the 7th floor of the 11-story building at 11:00am. The fire alarm was then set off. The participants later received instruction on how to leave the seventh floor in the event of a fire. Additionally, we practised administering first aid and evacuating two individuals from the eighth floor to the ground floor and sent them to hospital on an ambulance.

"Later, we demonstrated three different nozzle display types -- spraying, fogging, and jetting -- from a height of 64 feet using a turntable ladder," he said.

He continued, "We sprayed water on the open ground in front of the university. Normally, we don't spray water at the building or inside the building [during drills] as the furniture and other belongings might get damaged."

As a heatwave is sweeping the country and temperatures that are too high to bear, the students didn't hesitate to head outside and enjoy the water as "rain dropped" from a height of 64 feet.

He continued, "We sprayed the water for 10 minutes."