Sharjah’s Civil Defence has issued a circular stating that owners of buildings and homes have until 30th September to fit in the fire-safety measures. And by 1st October 2017, residents in Sharjah will be required to have smoke detectors in their homes.
New buildings and apartments have until 2018 to install smoke detectors on the premises before the fire-safety rule is enforced across the board.
Col. Sami Al Naqbi, Director General of Sharjah Municipality, said that the department has recently approved three companies to sell the devices to residents and owners of residential units.
The department is also planning to allow more companies to sell and install such detectors so that every part of the emirate can be covered.
Since the beginning of the year, Sharjah Civil Defence has carried out a number of awareness campaigns on the importance of installing fire-safety measures in homes. According to the Ministry of Interior, 54% of all recorded fire accidents that broke out in villas and homes in the UAE did not have any fire-safety measures in place.
Al Naqbi said that several promotional campaigns have been carried out to highlight necessity of these devices through social media and mosques -- where imams have explained the importance of smoke detectors to prevent accidents and distributed 20,000 such devices for free to people.