Fire inspections make Sharjah safer

Thousands of homes have already been visited as part of a wide-ranging fire safety campaign.

SHARJAH // Fire safety inspectors have visited 30,452 houses in Sharjah since the start of the campaign in December.
The six-month campaign by the Ministry of Interior has already helped make many residents safer by spotting hazards, said Marwan Bu Afrah, the deputy director general of Sharjah Civil Defence.
"We found an increase in construction materials like fibreglass, which helps spread fire in an event of a fire outbreak," he said.
"There were also several safety lapses in the connections of gas and electricity, faulty wiring, lack of maintenance of some buildings and absence of emergency exits in some houses."
Officials made recommendations to people living in potentially dangerous homes, he said.
"We have recommended that at least each villa should have two exits and have some space between the iron bars in the windows," he said.
He said the emirate was divided into 12 areas and had six groups of 20 inspectors doing two areas each.
"The inspectors stayed for 10 minutes in each home and all of them have reported a good reception from residents," he said. "If the resident was not at his home, the inspectors would come back another time. And if they failed to find him again, they would leave fire safety brochures at the door."
Sharjah, which has experienced several big domestic fires in previous years, such as that of the Kuwait building on Al Arouba street last year, is trying to create a safer environment, he said. The emirate had 110 fires last year.
In Umm al Qaiwain, inspectors have visited 4,127 houses in the past six months and attributed the recent decline in domestic fires in the emirate to their visits, said Lt Col Hassan Ali bin Sullam, the director general of UAQ Civil Defence.
"We have had only six fires in the last six months, which is a 60 per cent decrease in domestic fires compared with last year's 14 fires in the same period," he said. "Our inspectors mostly targeted housewives as they were more at risk of domestic fires. Their knowledge of fire safety was important to avert domestic fires."
The emirate had 31 inspectors doing the rounds.
Besides the house inspections, the authority had prepared 40 awareness lectures in schools and government departments, which about 2,000 people attended. They also printed and distributed 43,000 brochures in Arabic English and Urdu.
In Ajman, inspectors visited 9,357 homes in the past six months, said Lt Salem Obaid Al Zaabi, spokesman for Ajman Civil Defence.
Residents who received the visits said they appreciated the authorities' efforts to create awareness about fire safety.
"I had not in my life bothered to learn how to use a fire extinguisher, though I had it in my kitchen," said Akram Bilal, a resident of Khazana in Sharjah. "The day inspectors knocked on our door, I panicked, fearing their could be violations in home or like I was going for an interview and had poor knowledge of these fire safety things. But thank God, by the time they left, I had learnt a lot."
However, residents in towns like Rolla, Al Nabaa, Abu Shagara and Butina said they had not seen any inspectors in the past six months.
 
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