Dubai: Around 1000 people were evacuated from the Naif Market in less than four minutes during an evacuation drill carried out by the Health and Safety Department of Dubai Municipality, the civic body said on Thursday.
The evacuation drill, conducted according to international best practices, was part of the efforts to ensure public health and safety in line with the risk and emergency management policy of Dubai Municipality.
This was to achieve the vision of the Municipality's strategic plan to build a happy and sustainable city and to increase preparedness for crises and emergencies for public utilities, said Redha Hassan Salman, director of the Health and Safety Department and Head of the Corporate Emergency and Crises Team.
The mock exercise was organized in cooperation with the Municipality’s strategic partners, Dubai Police, Civil Defense and the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services.
Salman said the evacuation exercise was an important part of the work process of Dubai Municipality, which is especially concerned about the cases of the People of Determination, as in all emergency and crisis plans of the Municipality.
"The role of the shop owners in responding to emergencies in the market was enhanced. They participated in the evacuation and also in the training for the exercise in order to raise the readiness of the shop owners."
He said three scenarios of fire outbreak and evacuation were created, including the case of people of determination, using the best evacuation equipment suitable for them, which enhances the readiness and training to evacuate all infected cases.
The market, which has 265 shops, is frequented by thousands of shoppers from various sections of the community every day.
The current market was built after the old Naif Souq was gutted in a massive fire in 2008.
Salman explained that the Health and Safety Department has carried out the exercise with an integrated plan, in which all sections of the department participated, ensuring the cooperation of the strategic partners.
Sultan Al Suwaidi, head of the Health Control Section in the Department, was assigned the executive supervision of the initiative along with the team from the Section.
Dubai Municipality is one of the first government departments in developing emergency and crisis response system and has a policy for managing risks and emergencies which is periodically updated according to the best international practices. The addition of the cases of the People of Determination in the exercise reflects the policy of the Municipality to care for them, it said.
The Municipality also honoured the representatives of Dubai Police, Civil Defense and the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services for their participation in the success of the exercise.
