Abu Dhabi: Negligence and failing to adhere to fire safety regulations and guidelines is cause for the majority of fires in residential buildings, said a senior official.
“A recent spate of fire incidents in the UAE and across the Gulf has exposed alarming issues in the fire-safety mechanism of the GCC nations, prompting calls for an overhaul of safety standards, harsh penalties for violators, and awareness drives for the public,” UAE Civil Defence Commander-in-Chief Major General Rashid Al Matroushi revealed in the Ministry of Interior’s magazine ‘999’.
He said the number of blazes in Doha, Manama, Sharjah and Dubai kept firefighters busy this summer. While some of the flames were doused without major damage to property, others were tragic and resulted in unfortunate loss of lives and property worth millions of dirhams.
“In most cases, negligence was responsible for the start of the blaze, which was then aggravated due to inflammable material in the vicinity. A spark can turn into a tragedy if the general public is unaware or unable to deal with the incident,” he explained.
He said the Civil Defence aims to cut down reaction time from the current 5-7 minutes to zero minutes by turning householders and commercial workers into the first line of fire-fighters.
In a bid to cut down fire incidents, the Civil Defense is also carrying out a six months campaign for Families’ Safety at Homes, across the Emirates. The campaign is the first of its kind worldwide, where specialised Civil Defense teams visit homes to spread awareness among families and explain how to prevent fires.
“So far, we have visited 206,490 houses out of total 336,322 houses or 61.4 per cent of all UAE houses. During the campaign, Civil Defence distributed 1.3 million printed materials to the families,” said Maj Gen Al Matroushi.
The campaign, which began on March 20, 2012. include visits and inspections of 29,057 factories, warehouses and workers’ accommodations, removal of irregularities in 9,711 facilities and buildings, beginning of training of 63,745 workers and employees on safety skills, distributing 84,166 printed guidelines of fire safety in industrial areas. In total 1.15 million employees are being targeted for this campaign.
Last year, UAE Civil Defense carried out a nationwide door-to-door campaign, educating residents on fire safety. Residents were also warned not to leave oil in pans on the cooking hub, not to overload electrical connections and to regularly check water heaters.
Following reports on the risk of non-fire-rated cladding in residential high-rises, there are ongoing efforts to revise the UAE’s Fire and Life Safety Code, in order to prohibit the installation or use of such cladding panels on tower blocks.
“Due to its strategic importance, Civil Defence teams continue to implement the safety campaign in industrial areas all over the country. A series of awareness training programmes were carried out in schools, aiming at fostering safe behaviour in the minds of children of different age groups. Additionally the outreach teams, in all regional departments of the Civil Defence, implement awareness programmes in various government and private facilities and buildings, including evacuation exercises,” Al Matroushi added.
