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Mock fire drill in Dubai hotel

DUBAI - The Dubai Civil Defence yesterday morning conducted a mock fire and rescue drill at the Novotel Hotel in conjunction with several units of Dubai Police, including the bomb squad,

The facilities security unit, rescue and ambulance unit, together with Dubai Transport, which provided buses to evacuate hotel guests, the Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services' emergency services and the hotel's administration.

Colonel Rashid Thani Al Matroushi, Director of Dubai Civil Defence, supervised the mock fire and rescue drill. He addressed the men before the start of the operation and told fire fighters to maintain a high degree of readiness, arrive at the scene in record time and improve the level of coordination with the various emergency services, pointing to the need to take notes of their performance which they should review at the end of the drill.

The operations room received an emergency call at 10am of a fire on the fifth floor of the hotel. The hotel fire and safety staff immediately informed guests to evacuate the hotel in accordance with the evacuation plan, staff then secured hotel elevators and made sure that guests and staff assembled in the designated assembly points.

Civil defence units arrived at the hotel in record time and set up a forward command centre at the fourth floor after it was discovered that the fire had started in room 502. It was also found that 10 people were reported missing. Fire fighters made sure that the remaining staff were also evacuated to the designated assembly areas.

Fire fighters were divided into two teams - one to combat the fire and the other to search for the missing people in conjunction with Dubai Police rescue units. Two missing people were rescued from room 502, others were rescued from the eighth and tenth floors. At the end of the drill a meeting was held between the various emergency services and the hotel administration to evaluate performance.