The General Directorate of the Dubai Civil Defense conducted a fire drill in the Dubai Marina area on Saturday morning. The drill was organised by Al Marsa civil defense centre in coordination with Emaar Properties and the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services. The evacuation drill started with the operations room being alerted at 9:30 am about a fire that broke out on a pedestrian footbridge leading to the Marina Shopping mall. The drill even displayed the firefighters' rescue skills where they evacuated two 'injured' people - one critical while the other received moderate injuries. Al Marsa civil defense fire engines rushed to the incident scene at 9:36 am. The drill was staged to show how firefighters would deal with a fire where a pedestrian bridge leading to the Marina Shopping mall had collapsed.
The firefighters started the evacuation process of 522 people at the scene, containing the fire by 9:48am. The drill ended at 9:54am. The Civil Defence and Police departments usually carry out such drills to display their readiness skills as well as to train residents on how to handle such situations.