Zen Sadavarta told everyone around to stay calm and cover their mouth with wet cloth

MUMBAI: After a fire broke out in a Mumbai high-rise on Wednesday morning, ten-year-old Zen Sadavarte showed great presence of mind by employing the safety tips she had learnt at school to ensure that her family and neighbours remained safe. Zen stays with her parents and a brother on the 16th floor of Crystal Tower at Parel.

A Class VI student of a school in Matunga , Zen recalled and put to use the fire safety tips she had learnt during a project in Class III, which ensured her family and others remained safe until the fire brigade personnel arrived. Zen said she was sleeping when her parents, who spotted the smoke and woke her up. "When parents opened the kitchen window, the entire flat was filled with smoke. My neighbours and a few others had gathered by that time," she said.

"I saw everybody on the floor was panicking ... All of us went to a neighbouring flat in search of safe place, where I asked them to remain calm. With the help of cotton , water and cloth pieces we made purifiers and handed them over to all the people in the flat," Zen said.

"I asked everyone to keep the purifiers on their mouth. This stopped them from suffocating due to the smoke and they were able to breath well, preventing inhalation of carbon dioxide ," she said. When a cotton piece is soaked in water, you can breath almost normally as carbon molecules are separated by the water, she added. "I told my neighbours to shut down the power supply, stay calm and breath easy. After some time, the fire brigade personnel arrived and all of us were rescued," said the schoolgirl, adding, "I am happy that whatever I learnt in a school project was useful in saving many lives," she said.

Zen said, "I won't say that I saved their lives, I just advised them what to do and then we all were saved by the fire brigade cranes." Praising Zen for her bravery and keeping calm, one of her neighbours said, "We are thankful to her as she came to our rescue before the fire brigade personnel arrived to rescue us."

