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UAE Civil Defence: Enforcing fire safety at facilities

Resolution (24) introduced in 2012 lends to the qualitative development of Civil Defence services, explains Colonel Jamal Ahmed Ibrahim, Director of Preventive Safety Department. Excerpts of an interview with Khaleej Times

What are the most important features of the Resolution?

The Resolution (24) in the year 2012 is a significant development on the quality of organisation among Civil Defence services in the UAE. This is due to the fact that any building licence or renewal is based on a valid certificate of civil defence requirements for fire safety.

The Resolution also prevents insurance companies from issuing any document to any facility or building, unless they have a valid certificate of civil defence requirements for fire safety.

The Resolution also obligates landlords to conduct periodic maintenance of systems and preventive safety through licensed organisations.

When was the Resolution implemented?

The implementation of the Resolution began officially from January 13, 2013, in all emirates. Note that the contents of the Resolution were implemented in Dubai under the Local No. 2 in 2009.

Who are the target audiences and recipients of the Resolution?

The Resolution includes all buildings and facilities that currently exist or are under construction in the UAE, with the exception of private houses, which do not have a commercial character.

What are the offences contained in the decision?

The inspection form includes a schedule of public and private irregularities and includes 187 violations of preventive safety.

What are the maximum and the minimum values of the fines?

The highest fine is Dh50,000 and the minimum is Dh500.

Can a facility be fined more than one fine during the inspection visit?

Inspector determines that when visiting the facility or building based on the modes of violation. In addition for each fine determined by the degree of risk, the inspector determines a period to remove those irregularities, including the immediate removal of the offence that was severely dangerous.

What is the maximum penalty for offenders?

Inspectors and the Civil Defence department are keen to support projects and building owners with all fire protection requirements at these sites. This is to ensure they apply all criteria and are measured by types of violations, which are present on a printed overleaf given to the owner of the facility, when signifying the end of the inspection. This includes identification of infractions and the specific time period to remove each violation.

In case of failed implementation after the given time period, Dh500 will be charged as monthly fine on the facility, as well as its licence in extreme cases in coordination with the Economic Development Department.

After three months of failed implementation, the facility will be shut down. In cases where an extreme non-compliance is detected, the closure of the facility may be immediate.

Article 11 of the Council of Ministers Resolution stipulates that after exhausting all necessary means to remove the violation, the decision to close the facility violation is needed until the violation is corrected and root causes removed.

How are the facilities inspected?

The Civil Defence applies an electronic inspection system, where inspectors use an electronic device that contains a list of offences, and a sample inspection format. This device also has the ability to print the form and immediately hand it over to the facility manager, or send it by e-mail.

Follow-up visits may be determined after the deadline, electronically, where the system is used to issue a daily schedule for inspectors. It identifies follow-up visits, based on their preceding reports, in addition to issuance of evaluation report results.