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29 March 2024

If alarm rings for 2 minutes, get out: Civil Defence

Hussain Mohd Al Rahoomi (SUPPLIED)

Published
By Majorie van Leijen

Firefighting in high-rise buildings requires an expertise of its own.

It requires better trained firefighters, more advanced equipment and Dubai Civil Defence has a special department dealing with fire safety in buildings that are higher than 23 metres above the lowest level of fire service access.

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Fire-hit tenants: Landlord demands notice period

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People are not quickly aware of their vulnerable position living on one of the higher floors of these high rise buildings and do not tend to think of the worst case scenario.

"This is very normal," says Hussain Mohd Al Rahoomi, the Dubai Civil Defence man in charge of fire-fighting in high rise buildings. "People usually do not like to think about bad things."

"I understand that residents do not respond to every fire alarm they hear, because there are quite a lot of cases of false alarm every year. But if it is still ringing after 2 minutes, it is for real and you need to get out of there."

According to Hussain, fire does not often erupt in high rise buildings in Dubai, because the safety measures are very strictly applied.

Recently, a combination of the American and European guidelines resulted in a local UAE-code, one which all master developers and contractors have to abide by when developing such buildings.

However, as we saw in Sharjah last week, cases of extended fire do appear, and residents living on higher floors might not be completely prepared for such an emergency.

"I would highly recommend a fire drill for residents living in high rise buildings every year," says Hussain, explaining that DCD organises these drills for schools and hospitals, but is not responsible for executing them in residential buildings.

"That is up to the owner of the building, or of the apartments."

Another responsibility Hussain ascribes to the residents themselves. "We do provide all apartments with instruction manuals, describing what to do in cases of fire. The problem is that people often do not read these instructions," he says.

Still, Hussain would like to see fire alarms with an intercom in all buildings.

In some buildings this is already the case, enabling DCD to explain the residents exactly what they should do.

"Sometimes residents do not even have to move, because most high rise buildings are made in such a way that fire cannot spread far," explains Hussain.

It also happens that residents get stuck, and DCD needs to get them out of the building with the helicopter.

High-rise fire-fighting is a challenge, because there are only a few ways to reach the heights some of the buildings in Dubai have.

"The largest ladder in the world is only 62 meters, and the highest rescue platform 112 meters," says Hussain, admitting that these are not present in Dubai. "We have a 38 meter ladder and 56 meter platform. If this equipment would be any bigger, they would be too heavy to cross any bridge and too large to fit in between congested high-rise areas, like Dubai Marina.

However, Hussain does not see reason to worry for the residents living up high. "We do not accept any building to rise without following the standard safety measures," he says.

He advises everybody to read the escape plan well before moving in, and to respond to a fire alarm when it continues for longer than 1 to 2 minutes.

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