Firefighting equipment under the scanner

Sami Al Azzami, a fire expert at Corodex, a leading company in fire and safety standards, told Khaleej Times on April 2 that lack of proper international standardisation in firefighting equipment installed in buildings is responsible for the fires spreading in the vicinity.

“Most of the fires prevention system that are available in the market have been sourced from South Asia. Some of them don’t comply with standardization criteria expected of such equipment globally. Authorities need to ensure that the cheap stuff available in the market does not compromise safety standards,” said Azzami.

Azzami pointed out that the most of the people circumvent safety when they don’t pay attention to the quality of firefighting equipment installed in their buildings and commercial establishments. Maintenance is not a priority and they only seem to realize the downside after an accident takes place.”

“Since the temperatures in summer are rather extreme in this part of the world, fires are sometime unavoidable hazards, but if people were to only pay a little attention to detail, they could save themselves a lot of grief,” he says.