Official shares tips to avoid fire accidents

DOHA: The most dangerous fire incidents during summer usually occur during night or early morning due to many reasons; one among them is, leaving the electrical appliances working at night, said an officer of the General Directorate of Civil Defence.

“Among the common mistakes that people make in summer, which cause fire incidents, are that they leave their mobile phones on charging at night and overcharging may cause fire incident and in case if it happens no one is there to pay attention because they are sleeping,”  said Captain Jabor Hamad Al Marri.

Speaking to Qatar TV, he said, other common mistakes people commit include switching ACs only by remote and not from the main switch to keep it on standby 24 hours. “Such negligence is also the cause of fire incidents.”

The fire accidents occur increasingly in the summer days due to high temperatures and negligence.

The General Directorate of Civil Defence has now and then confirmed its complete readiness to deal with any fire incidents and people can contact the department at the emergency number 999 giving the full address for easy access.

The Ministry of Interior regarding its first five year strategy from 2011-2016 had said that the Ministry had succeeded in achieving more than 90 percent of strategy goals. Among the achievements regarding the safety and security sector, the reduction of fire incidents from 75 to 30.5 fire incidents per 100 thousand was included.

Aiming at spreading and raising awareness among the general public  for preventing fire accidents that may occur during the summer, the General Directorate of Civil Defence had earlier released a number of  safety tips related to fire safety advising people to avoid many wrongdoings and actions which are among the main causes of such incidents such as: using poor-quality electrical devices and connectors; lack of interest in periodic maintenance; leaving the electrical devices running continuously especially the air conditioners; and leaving flammable materials near energy sources.

The Staff  Brigadier Abdullah Muhammad Al Suwaidi, Director General of Civil Defence, said earlier that the department will open two centres, one at Hamad Port and the other at Al Wakrah which will serve the adjoining areas, adding that the response time of the fire-fighting vehicle is in record time and this is due to assistance of the traffic patrols in facilitating the arrival of the teams and the awareness of the community about the importance of opening roads to the civil defence teams, help the fire brigade to reach in record time.