Fire safety standards lag in old buildings

ABU DHABI // Many old buildings in the capital lack fire safety systems or are fitted with broken equipment that has not been repaired in years.

Of 20 residential buildings visited in Abu Dhabi’s neighbourhoods, 10 had fire alarms that were not working.

Residents said owners had made no attempts to repair the alarms, while some security guards said Civil Defence had never requested that the safety equipment should be maintained.

“The fire alarms do not work in the building and the municipality or the Civil Defence have never served any warnings about this,” said Mohammed Ibrahim, a guard of an old residential building on Airport Road that houses families and single men.

“Life goes on like that. I think it has not been working for years.”

In recent years there have been serious fires at old buildings in the city, which have been blamed on overcrowding in apartments, poor electrical wiring and substandard fire safety equipment.

“In fact, people opt for old buildings to save money and they don’t care about safety issues,” said Tahir Khan, a Pakistani, who believed there were no fire alarms in his building on Hazza bin Zayed Street.

“If anything has to happen, we can’t stop that. Life is in the hands of Allah.”

Moinuddin, an Indian watchman at a building on Electra Street, said the owner had not fixed its broken safety systems.

“The fire alarm instrument is there but it has not been working for years,” he said.

“We can’t do anything if the building owner doesn’t fix the problem.”

Mr Moinuddin said that the building was old and mainly occupied by single men.

Another resident of an old building on Airport Road, who asked not to be named, said: “I have never seen this fire alarm working. I live with my family but what we can do?

“If we argue with the owner they would say, ‘OK, you can leave the place when you want’.”

He believed more pressure should be put on owners to provide better fire safety standards.

“We knew nothing about the operation of fire alarm systems when we moved here,” he said. “So the responsible authorities should do this. This is a basic safety feature that each building must be fitted with.”

But some old buildings have had fire safety equipment installed in the past year.

Al Ibrahimi building on Electra Street has had alarms installed in each apartment since a fire last year, in which four people were injured.

Civil Defence of Abu Dhabi Police did not respond to requests for comment.

anwar@thenational.ae