Cigarette butt caused Torch Tower fire
dubai — A burning cigarette butt thrown from an upper floor caused the fire in Dubai Marina’s Torch Tower recently, a top police official has revealed. According to Major-General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police, the cigarette butt landed on a pot of plant in a balcony below, which caught fire.
The blaze then spread to the cladding of the building. According to him, the police confirmed this by throwing a burning cigarette butt on some plants at the police headquarters in an experiment. The plants caught fire and spread slowly, which means the Torch Tower fire was a “smouldering” one.
No casualties were reported in the fire that was reported on August 4, but 38 flats were damaged.
Ibtisam Al Abdouli, director of the criminal evidence department, said the police investigation of the fire was completed within 10 days.
dubai — DID you know that most of the fires in dubai were reported at 3pm? or that june, july and august are the three months that see the maximum number of fires? all these and more were revealed during a dialogue session between the police, civil defence and private sector companies in dubai on tuesday.
Major-general rashid thani al matroushi, director-general of the dubai civil defence, revealed that in high-rise buildings, most of the fires started in either sauna, garbage or electricity rooms. in villas, most fires broke out in kitchens and bedrooms, he added.
Al satwa, karama and al quoz areas witnessed the most number of fires in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.
In the last three years, short circuit was the biggest cause of fires, he said, adding that stray cigarette butts were another big cause.
according to major-general al matroushi, the civil defence’s average response time is six minutes. the entity is aiming to bring this down to four minutes by 2020. the ultimate aim is to reach a site within one minute after being alerted of a fire.
Currently, there are 16 civil defence stations in dubai, and three new ones will be opened in nad al sheba, al mizhar and an industrial area.
Automatic alarm systems
Maj-gen al matroushi praised the automatic alarm systems that are used in dubai. “our systems are highly advanced and work 24/7. the equipment and machinery used in dubai are the latest in the world.”
Speaking about the joint dialogue session, major-general abdullah khalifa al marri, commander-in-chief of the dubai police, said: “this is the first of its kind discussion between dubai’s security services and private sector companies. and it’s exploring fire prevention and control coordination in the emirate between the public and private sectors, and extracting a set of joint outputs and initiatives to provide the world with the best model for crisis and disaster management. our goal is to make dubai the safest city in the world.”