7th Annual Middle East FireSafe Summit Kicks off in Dubai

The 7th Annual Middle East FireSafe Summit, supported by Directorate General of Civil Defence-Dubai, kicked off yesterday at the Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai. The two-day summit will witness government bodies, fire safety institutions, trade bodies and global fire safety leaders coming together and staging a dialogue on achieving fire safety excellence in the region.

Brigadier Ahmed Obaid Al Sayegh, Assistant Director-General of Fire and Rescue at the Directorate-General of Civil Defence in Dubai inaugurated the summit and presented an inaugural speech in which he stressed the importance of the Civil Defence’s role in participating and supporting such an event that provides a great platform for awareness, safety and prevention; in addition to the exchange of knowledge and sharing safety standards. Eng. Pramod Challa, Senior Engineer, Safety Department at Dubai Civil Defence gave a presentation on the Upcoming UAE Fire & Life Safety Code of Practice. This was followed by a session titled “Clear decisions with Fire and Life Safety Codes and Standards usage” by Drew Azzara – Executive Director MENA, National Fire Protection Association. The session focused on the evolving fire and life safety standards in Middle East and explored how various governments address and adopt these standards.

Dave Brown, Director of Operations at London Fire Brigade presented “London City Beats: London Fire Brigade Story: 150 years of Fire Safety Excellence” which outlined the integrated fire safety development model. Dave further elaborated how major incidents came to define modern fire safety models while stressing on London Fire Brigade's commitment to fire safety excellence.

Shedding the light on fire incidents in healthcare organizations; William Koffel, President of Koffel Associates gave a stellar presentation titled “Protecting our patients from fire” which dealt with applying NFPA 101 in health care organizations in Middle East. He cited how healthcare organizations in the US have incorporated the 'defend in place' concept and have thereby successfully responded to fire emergencies. Singling out staff response as definitive, William stressed on the need to prepare and train healthcare professionals for such eventualities.

Abhishek Chhabra, Business Development Associate at Thomas Bell-Wright Consultants and Gary Schofield, International Product Specialist Manager at Safe Design Ltd spoke about the integral role of testing and certification in assuring fire safety and the latest trends in fire suit technology respectively.

With special focus on new codes for high rise buildings, modern emergency response and crisis management and establishing annual trainings, the event witnessed excellent presentations by Dr. David Charters – Chairman, British Standards Institute for Building Construction 7703, Sylvain Theriault – Executive Director of Operations, Emirates Civil Defence Academy and Nasser Al Buhairi – Chief Security Officer & Emergency Response Coordinator at Kuwait Oil Company. 

The summit sponsors and exhibitors also demonstrated their innovative solutions and technologies to equip organizations to effectively deal with fire incidents. The second day of the summit will witness several key note presentations by Dubai Municipality, ENOC, SFPE and Dubai Airports Authority along with relevant case studies and panel discussions.

The 7th Annual Middle East FireSafe Summit is organized by Fleming, with the support of Directorate General of Civil Defence-Dubai, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Airports and Emirates Civil Defence Academy. The event is sponsored by Koffel International Fire Safety Consultancy, Coopers Fire Limited, Leminar Air Conditioning Industries LLC, Safe Design, Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants (TBWIC), Exova, Innohome, Magnum, Middle East Specialized Cables Co. (MESC), Lubrizol, Prysmian Group, Fujairah Rockwool Factory, ARASCA Medical Equipment Trading LLC, ROCKWOOL, RESQ Life and DUCAB.