Campaigns to cut down fire reaction time in UAE
UAE has definitely been the target of fire reactions which had resulted in damaged properties and loss of family or worker’s life. With tragedies faced, fires in Doha, Manama, Sharjah and Dubai have now emphasized the approach of public awareness about risk factors of these fire reactions.
One of the reasons why fire was caught was due to negligence of fire safety regulations and guidelines. Fires in Doha, Manama, Sharjah and Dubai kept firefighters busy throughout the summer. Where some fire damaged properties, others were tragic and caused loss of lives and property worth a million Dirham. Neglecting the safety rules was considered as the start of the fire blaze, which then worsened due to material that was inflammable in the nearby area. A small spark of fire can turn into a tragedy if the general public is unaware or unable to handle the incident.
household fires are very common in the ME
A call for safety measurements and standards, penalty for violators and awareness programs for the public was made essential through a recently started campaign. The Civil Defense is aiming to cut down the reaction time from the current 5-7 minutes to zero minutes by making householders and commercial workers into the first line of fire-fighters. In addition, the Civil Defense is planning to achieve success through a six-month campaign for Families’ Safety at Homes across the Emirates. This campaign will have specialized teams of Civil Defense visiting homes to spread awareness among families and explain how to prevent from fires.
The campaign had started on 20 March, 2012 and it included 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, and distributing 84,166 printed guidelines of fire safety in industrial areas. In total 1.15 million employees are being targeted for this campaign. So far, the Civil Defense team has visited 206,490 homes out of a total 336,322 homes or 61.4% of all the UAE houses. During the campaign, the Civil Defense also distributed 1.3 million printed materials to the families.
A fire broke out in the lobby of Atlantis
Last year, the UAE Civil Defense had carried out a nationwide door-to-door campaign to educate residents about fire safety. Residents were also warned not to leave oil in pans on the cooking hub, not to overload electrical connections and to keep a regular check on water heaters. Following the reports on the risk of non-fire-rated cladding in residential high rises, the UAE’s Fire and Life Safety Code has been revised in order to forbid the installation or use of such cladding panels on tower blocks.
The UAE Civil Defense team will continue to execute safety standards and measures through campaigns that create public awareness all over the country. A series of awareness training programmes were held in schools, aiming at promoting safe behavior in the minds of children of different age groups. The Civil Defense has also reached to various governments and private facilities and buildings, including evacuation exercises in order to create maximum awareness.
For more information about this campaign, CLICK HERE
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