On Monday evening, at the height of the rush hour, a fire broke out in an old five-storey residential building in the heart of Deira in Dubai. Thankfully, all residents of Al Shamsi Building appeared to have escaped largely unhurt from the blaze, but now face the daunting task of putting their lives back together, finding new places to live and replacing their possessions.
As with any fire of such magnitude, municipal officials and civil defence personnel will be carrying out a review of their actions and reactions — always trying to improve on their professional performance and service delivery.
No doubt, that review will look at how often the building was inspected before the fire? Were hazards identified? Were those hazards communicated to the building ownership? Did the ownership respond appropriately? How was the initial call answered? Was that first response adequate? Was it effective? Were more units needed? Was that need assessed quickly enough? Did the subsequent units arrive soon enough? Were they utilised as effectively as they could? And what lessons can be learnt?
These are the normal questions that should be part of any performance review.
