Civil Defence plan campaign to cut fire accidents on dhows

The Dubai Civil Defence department will be visiting dhows in Al Khor to raise awareness on fire prevention after a blaze last month sank an Iranian trading boat.

"A team will visit the dhows and try to raise awareness about safety issues," Brigadier Rashid Al Matroushi, head of Dubai's Civil Defence unit, told Gulf News in a exclusive interview.

"They will have fire extinguishers on hand as well as brochures and will give training for free if the sailors want it."

With safety standards still a problem on dhows, Brig. Al Matroushi said, the Civil Defence unit is in the process of translating safety brochures into Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu and Somali.

He said the project had been delayed because of difficulties finding Somali translators.

The move comes after Brig. Al Matroushi had said previously that Dubai's Civil Defence was not authorised to inspect fire prevention and safety standards on most dhows anchored in the creek.

Ninety-five per cent of the dhows are registered in other countries, mainly Iran, Pakistan, India and Somalia. The country registering boats must check for fire and safety standards, even though the sea-borne vessel may spend more time in Dubai's ports.

Civil Defence sources are concerned that without unified fire prevention and safety standards among different emirates, little can be done to deal with the problem.

A recently released Civil Defence study on dhows docked in the Al Khor wharf showed there were six fires last year, eight in 2002 and seven in 2001.

Those fires led to losses of Dh35 million, an average of Dh11.6 million lost in Al Khor a year. No deaths have been reported, but two have been injured.

While pointing out the high safety standards on Pakistani and Indian registered dhows, Brig. Al Matroushi described the situation on some as "dangerous accidents waiting to happen."

He cited smoking as the main cause of fires.