Fujairah launches 3-day awareness campaign

fujairah — The Department of Civil Defence in Fujairah has launched a three-day awareness campaign, as part of its annual plan to promote a culture of prevention and safety.

The campaign under the slogan Smoke Detector ... for your home safety, was started at the at the Fujairah City Centre.

The event, held in lines with the strategy of the Ministry of Interior as per the instruction of Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, urges residents to use smoke detectors in their homes to protect lives and property.

Brigadier Ali Obaid Al Tniji, director of the Fujairah Civil Defence said the civil defence had coordinated with two specialised smoke detector companies to provide sufficient quantities of devices with prices ranging from Dh2,500 to Dh5,000.

The first quarter of the year saw 15 fires in Fujairah resulting in four cases of moderate suffocation, according to Al Tniji, who also mentioned that the total fires in Fujairah over the past two years amounted to 128.

An awareness programme had been developed to include all members of the community to strengthen preventive awareness, safety behaviours and to emphasise the importance of installing smoke detectors at homes. These devices detect most types of fires in the initial stage and helps evacuate the house in sufficient time. To ensure it works effectively, care must be taken in installing the smoke detectors at appropriate places of the house and the families should do the maintenance periodically.

He attributed the cause of household fires to the lack of preventive awareness stressing that the installation of smoke detectors increased the rate of survival by 50 per cent, and the probability of death up to four times in the absence of a smoke detector. Al Tniji urged families to install devices approved by the civil defence.

The next phase will see the smoke detectors connecting directly to the civil defence department, thereby helping the safety operation rooms to act at a faster pace, according to Al Tniji. He also mentioned that the detectors will be connected to the smart phones of home owners to warn them of fire, if they are out of the house.