Hundreds of evacuation drills were conducted in high-rise buildings across Dubai last year, Civil Defence revealed on Wednesday.
“A total of 883 evacuation drills were carried out in different areas in Dubai, including Dubai Marina and Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard as part of mandatory requirements to get residents respond faster, react calmly and follow safety procedures in case of a fire,” said Brig Rashid Buflasa, director general for fire and rescue at Dubai Civil Defence.
“Drills are vital as they help train security staff and make residents more familiar with the process. They also help identify the number of children and people who may require assistance in a building should a fire break out,” said Brig Buflasa during fire safety forum.
He said some 474,330 people benefited from the evacuation drills last year.
At the forum, Civil Defence officials told of plans to adopt new methods to reduce the number of fires in the emirate and improve their efficiency when tackling them.
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Experts from around the world shared examples of major fires that broke out in their home countries last year and the lessons they learnt from them. They also warned of incorrect practices carried out by some residents in the buildings which caught fire that contributed to their deaths.
Mr Changmok Lee, an official from the national fire agency of South Korea, spoke about the Jecheon fire that broke out on December 21 at the Duson Sporium sport centre due to faulty electrical wiring.
“Twenty-nine people died in the Jecheon fire,” he said.
“Fires in high rise-building are very dangerous due to the complexity of evacuation procedures.
“People living in high-rise buildings need to take stairs not use the lift when a fire erupts the building.”
Mr Lee said those who died had perished from smoke inhalation, which could have been avoided had the centre been evacuated correctly.
Five major fires fuelled by flammable aluminium cladding broke out in the UAE over the past six years.
Calls for stringent inspections were renewed after the second fire in as many years spread across The Torch tower, one of the world’s tallest residential buildings, in Dubai Marina in August last year.
On Wednesday, Civil Defence officials said a tougher fire safety code was implemented in a bid to minimize these risks and human–caused fires.
“According to the new code, manufactures, facility managements and residents will be held responsible if they cause a fire. There are stricter rules and fines for people who cause a fire,” said Lt Col Ali Al Mutawa, assistant director of smart services department at Dubai Civil Defence.
Among the strategies to improve response time and fire-fighting capabilities is the consideration for artificial intelligence.
The director of Civil Defence told the forum of plans to replace firefighters with robots to protect.
“The technology will be obtained from South Korea where it is in a trial phase of testing robots in battling fires,” said Maj Gen Rashid Al Matroushi.
Civil Defence also intend to introduce firefighting boats to handle offshore fires.
“This is part of Dubai’s strategy to harness the latest technology to increase the efficiency of fire-fighting operations and reduce fatalities resulting from fires,” Maj Gen Al Matroushi said.
He also revealed plans to open the first research centre to conduct studies on firefighting and rescue operations in a bid to improve efficiency.
Eight years in the making, the centre is set to open later this year and will involve information exchanges with other countries to benefit from their expertise.
“The centre will conduct in-depth studies on fires and analyse the points of strength and weakness in firefighting work.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
