Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Police have called on the public to avoid gathering at fire and accident sites to avoid hindering rescue and emergency operations.
Colonel Othman Al Tamami, Director of Emergency and Public Safety at Abu Dhabi Police and a member at the higher committee for construction codes in Abu Dhabi, said the fire code will be implemented in Abu Dhabi during this year.
The code includes public safety measures in buildings and having mandatory safe exits in case of fires in addition to smoke detectors, automatic water sprinklers and internal fire extinguishing equipment in every building.
A source at the Municipal Affairs Department in Abu Dhabi, who preferred not be named, said the fire code which will be implemented in Abu Dhabi is the first of its kind in the Middle East. It will include organisational standards and specifications which has to be available in buildings, materials used in construction of those buildings, ways of treating fires in residential and industrial locations and additional requirements in high rise buildings.
The source said the international fire codes, implemented in the United States, will be implemented in Abu Dhabi after modifying them to suit the capital's buildings. The code is part of the approved codes by the international council for construction which Abu Dhabi will implement soon to prevent fires.
Enabler
Colonel Al Tamami urged the public to avoid gathering at fire accident sites to enable firefighters and rescuers do their jobs easily. He pointed out that such gatherings hinder the arrival of emergency vehicles to the site on time.
Colonel Abdullah Hassan, Director of Abu Dhabi Civil Defence, seconded the call, saying the gathering of people at accident sites as a curiosity causes inconvenience to firefighters and rescuers. Some public vehicles also use the parking spots around the fire site to park illegally, which also works as an obstacle for emergency vehicles to access the site.
Colonel Al Tamami said the reasons behind most fires include electric faults which puts overload on the main electricity generator of a building.
What do you think could be done to make people aware of this wrong behaviour? Have you come across an incident where rescue teams were delayed because of people gathering at an accident site?
