Residents should react to every fire alarm

DUBAI // Building a culture of safety among residents accustomed to ignoring repeated fire alarms will be crucial to promoting security in high-rise towers across the emirate.

Civil Defence authorities recently announced that fire alert systems would be installed in new apartments and villas in Dubai.

However, experts point out that rebuilding trust in warning systems will be the key to ensuring the public’s compliance.

“Frequent false alarms will always de-sensitise the occupants of a building, which in the case of a real fire can be fatal,” said Douglas Ralph, the chief executive of Snap & Inspect, a property inspection and consultancy firm.

“Once that de-sensitisation has taken place it is difficult to regain the occupants’ confidence in the system. The first priority is to get the system fixed, then rebuilding trust in the system can begin.”

The building owner is responsible for ensuring safety systems are working, but the initial contractor and existing service provider are also obligated to maintain it.

“If the service provider inherits a faulty system, many of those faults will not be covered by the service contract so they go unresolved, either because the service provider cannot find the fault or because the building owner will not pay to have the fault fixed,” Mr Ralph said.

Owners or residents should insist on an independent report on the fire system.

Last month people living in MBK Tower in Business Bay complained they only knew to evacuate the building when they spotted fire crews.

“The alarms go off frequently but these are not working on every floor and we were lucky that the Civil Defence told us to leave the building,” said Thomas, a father of two, who walked down 50 floors with his family on January 18 when a fire stated in the building’s gym and sauna.

“It is extremely dangerous if fire alarms are not taken seriously. My worry is that if we are at work and a situation like this arises it will be difficult for the nanny to handle the kids without a proper warning.”

About 60 residents fled Marina Tower in Dubai Marina after a fire broke out on January 9 in a ground floor restaurant. But residents said most people were unaware of the fire since alarms did not sound on all floors.

“We have been told to evacuate already twice this year,” said L N, a resident. “But what about people who don’t respond because the fire alarms don’t go off?”

When contacted, building’s authorities said the systems were working. “The smoke triggers the alarm and when there was no smoke on some floors the alarm was not triggered; only in case of a fire will alarms trigger for the whole building,” said an MBK maintenance official.

“Our systems have been cleared by Civil Defence and checked by maintenance.”

Experts said it was also up to residents to take the initiative and demand answers from the owner and service provider.

“You need to be getting on to the building operator and owner that they need to get this sorted out,” said Andy Dean, head of facade engineering for consultancy firm WSP

“There may be a faulty system or it could be nothing wrong with the detection system but how it is used in the building. It could be the wrong level of alarm.

“You don’t want to evacuate a 134-floor building because of a small amount of smoke in kitchens. The right equipment needs to be installed and set to the right sensitivity.”

A heat and not a smoke detector should be installed in kitchens or the alarm would be set off every time toast is burnt, he said.

There should also be a systematic evacuation plan.

“In taller buildings specific people must be dedicated to managing how the building is evacuated.

“If it’s a false alarm it’s annoying if it happens a lot. But never ignore a fire alarm, I would definitely say get out.”

rtalwar@thenational.ae