Overcrowding risking lives says Dubai fire chief

This content was originally posted in 7DAYS UAE website at: Overcrowding risking lives says Dubai fire chief Two many people and gas cylinders crammed into apartments was the biggest challenge in tackling November’s huge fire in Muraqabbat, according to Dubai Civil Defence. The blaze, which tore through the residential Al Shamsi building and lasted for more than six hours, left about 400 people homeless. Lt Col Jamal Ahmed Ibrahim, director of preventive safety at Dubai Civil Defence, said the fire once again highlighted that overcrowded housing in Dubai is putting lives at risk. “Overcrowded apart­ments are a fire safety hazard and is a main challenge in the case of a fire incident and the building of Muraqabbat was a clear example of this,” he said. “There was an explosion every five minutes, especially in the first hours of the work. It felt that we were in a battlefield but our priority was not to have any of our firefighters hurt.” Police officers said residents of 48 apartments were affected by the blaze and that there were up to nine people in each flat. A representative of Hamad Al Shamsi, the owner of Al Shamsi building, said: “The building has been damaged beyond repair and will be demolished and we are currently working with Dubai Municipality to finalise the paper work before the demolition.” But, he declined to comment on the civil defence’s remarks regarding overcrowding. “I cannot comment further on anything related to the fire,” he said. Here’s a video of the Civil Defence team tackling the fire: In a separate incident in September, two people jumped to their deaths to escape a fire in a one-bedroom flat in Inter­national City that they shared with another 20 people. And Ibrahim said such overcrowded apartments are a hazard for several reasons. “Many of these apartments have partitions that could also prevent the alarm from activating, which means that we will receive the alarm late,” he said, adding: “And an overload of gas cylinders due to multiple people in one apartment or villa can aggravate the fire. The owners of these flats do not understand the danger behind their acts. “ Overcrowding in apartments is more serious in old buildings in which the 24/7 fire safety system, which automatically alerts the civil defence control room, is not installed. Fire officers carry out annual inspections of buildings before the renewing of their fire safety compliance licences but the checks don’t always discover potential risks. “The problem is that they will be expecting our visit so they remove any violation until they get the licence,” a spokesperson said. wafa.issa@7days.ae Read the original story at: Overcrowding risking lives says Dubai fire chief