Home owners urged to install smoke detectors

The Civil Defence in Sharjah has launched an awareness campaign to encourage installation of smoke detectors in residential units.

Announcing the campaign on Thursday, Lieutenant-Colonel Sami Khamis Al Naqbi, director-general of Sharjah Civil Defence, said: “The awareness campaign targets houses of all types in Sharjah that lack proper smoke detectors and aims at promoting safety standards at houses, saving the lives of people and their property and minimising fatalities caused by inhalation of toxic fumes resulting from fires.

“We want what’s best for our people, and the best safety standards, and we thought to approach them by talking to them and communicating with them directly.”

The campaign titled ‘Smoke detector is your home protector’ aims at saving lives by warning residents to evacuate from their villas when a fire breaks out.

The awareness campaign will be held for one week in Sharjah City before moving to the Central and Eastern regions in the emirate.

Brochures in Arabic, English and Urdu are being distributed to the public.

As a part of the campaign, the Civil Defence will install smoke detectors for free in around 1,000 houses in certain areas in the emirate.

In the first year, the installation of smoke detectors in houses will be optional and it will be mandatory in the second year, Lt-Col Al Naqbi.

“We want to ensure that people have the required protection to alert them to evacuate when a fire breaks out.”

With the advance of technology, there are options to protect homes from fire. Home owners can set up fire alerts by downloading an application on their phones and syncing it with the smoke detector. Another option is to have the Civil Defence install a box or a device which comes with a SIM card to be placed along with the smoke detector. Home owners need to insert the SIM card, which is connected automatically to the Civil Defence operation room 24/7, in the device and leave it there at all times. If a fire breaks out, the Civil Defence operations room is automatically alerted.

Types of devices

Nitin Shah, chairman and managing director of New Age Company, which displayed smoke detectors at the press conference, told Gulf News, “There are several types of fire detection devices: smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detectors, which are all easily installed in the ceiling. Smoke detectors are installed in rooms and heat detectors are installed in kitchens and transmit a voice message and a beeping siren and alarm at 85 decibels (equivalent to a race car at a speed of 200 kmph), across the house when a fire breaks out.

“Some of the detectors can be switched off manually, whereas others continue beeping for three minutes and only go off once the fire is extinguished. Some are designed with built-in batteries that are durable for 10 years while others have lithium batteries that can easily be replaced. The device has a lifespan of 10 years and ranges between Dh1,500 and Dh3,000, depending on the size of the house and the number of rooms.”

In an open area, the device can detect the smoke up to 100 metres and can send an SMS.

He said there is also a device meant for people with special needs.

source : gulfnews