How effective are fire alarms in UAE towers?

Portal Admin

Mon 19 Aug 2019

How effective are fire alarms in UAE towers?

NAT_190724-Hassantuk-(Read-Only)

Abu Dhabi: As many as 20,500 structures have so far been registered with the Hassantuk building safety solution, with 11,160 connected alarm transmission devices for firefighting and prevention in place in the UAE, a top official from Hassantuk told Gulf News.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) assigned the Hassantuk project to Injazat to link all commercial and residential towers in the country with the new smart fire alarm system, to protect lives and properties in case of a fire. Villas and homes are being linked by the MoI itself.

As of January this year, Hassantuk had connected more than 5,000 buildings to its smart system, with the aim of covering 150,000 residential and commercial buildings by 2021.

In case of a fire, signals are transmitted to the Hassantuk operation centre and the system automatically dials back to the registered numbers to confirm the fire

Are old towers a challenge?

Old towers across the country have been a big challenge for the entity but Hassantuk rectifies them along with teams from Civil Defence and the ministry.

The Hassantuk official said, “Our Alarm Transmission Equipment is specifically designed to connect both old and new systems. Where the systems are in proper working order, we are able to connect, no matter its type or age. Where the systems require repair, we issue safety notices which detail exactly what is required to be repaired in order to connect to the Hassantuk service.”

Some of the older buildings either lack fire alarm systems or the existing set-up is beyond economic repair.

“In these cases, we issue a detailed safety notice outlining the exact problem and submit this to both the building owner and Civil Defence so they can work together to resolve the issue,” the spokesperson said.

Dealing with false alarms

Earlier this year, Atif Al Braiki, director of strategic projects, Injazat Data Systems, told Gulf News Hassantuk carried out mass surveys of buildings across the UAE, covering over 15,000 buildings between July 2018 and January 2019.

In a statement to Gulf News, Hassantuk said it uses sophisticated artificial intelligence and engines to filter out duplicate and false alarms.

“Maintenance alarms are automatically identified, filtered and routed to the appropriate maintenance company for repair,” it said.

For example, the Hassantuk platform received over 1.5 million maintenance alarms in May. Many of these were repetitive false alarms due to faults in the connected building panels — these were filtered and both maintenance issues and panel faults were reported to the building owner and their maintenance company for immediate repair.”

According to the authorities, the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) received over 45,000 fire and life safety alarms in May — from these approximately 41,324 were verified as false or accidental activations.

“Like every Federal programme of this size and complexity, changes and actions are required from building owners and many other stakeholders,” the Hassantuk official said, but added, with the assistance of the Ministry of Interior and Civil Defence, challenges were met by using effective marketing techniques as a result of which Hassantuk was being rolled out at a steady rate.

How it works

Hassantuk (“Protect You” in Arabic) optimises fire and emergency response through a fire alarm system connected 24x7, using advanced Artificial Intelligence smart technologies.

In case of a fire, it first raises alarms to allow the occupants to react and evacuate as quickly as possible, then it automatically sends an alarm to the central “Alarm Receiving Centre” within seconds and to verify it as true or false, it provides the exact location of the fire and the fastest route to reach it. Finally, it automatically informs the emergency services control rooms and nearest Civil Defence centres to dispatch urgent assistance to the scene.