Homes to get fire alarm system linked to Civil Defence in Dubai

A fire alarm system that connects to Dubai Civil Defence’s control room will be fitted in residential buildings and villas this year to better prepare for fires.

The system feeds back information such as layout, number of occupants, images of the area and access points to Civil Defence before teams reach the area.

More than 56,000 commercial buildings have already been fitted with the systems as part of Civil Defence’s Life Safety Dashboard framework that began seven years ago.

Homes in the Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid communities will be the first residential areas to have the systems installed as part of the built-in infrastructure.

“It is not mandatory now for residential apartments and villas but there will be rules and regulations later on,” said Rashid Al Falasi, assistant director general of Fire and Rescue Services, Dubai Civil Defence.

“Villas and private houses had an exemption from this connection before because we were working on linking commercial buildings. It will be based on requests from building and villa owners for now because we are working to improve overall safety,” he said.

Owners of commercial buildings can report any emergency through a mobile phone application and the 24/7 direct alarm system also alerts Civil Defence about gas leaks, lift glitches or equipment malfunction.