Fire industry revamps practices to follow new code

The new fire safety code will push fire engineering companies to increase training and compliance efforts (Shutterstock)

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Fire system engineers will have to undergo thorough training to maintain the new code of practice issued by the Department of Civil Defence, a leading fire safety expert has said.

The Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice is the first standardized legislation to be introduced into the UAE.

It is a comprehensive guide that combines relevant legislation with international standards as it seeks to provide a unified guidebook to the country’s fire system engineers after it was introduced in July 2011.

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“Under the new building code practices compliance is key. The understanding of these items for installation and methodology will have to be revamped,” said Lee Andrews, director of Business and Engineering at Blue Diamond Emirates Insulation Contracting.

“Organisations such as ourselves are constantly undergoing rigorous training; we attend seminars around the world with internationally accredited associations all for the matter to be fully coherent with such codes,” he added.

He added that he expected other fire engineering firms in the UAE to quickly follow suit as it would be compulsory to comply with the new standards.

Andrews said that he expected the code to have a dramatic impact on the local MEP industry as it would help create awareness of issues that companies could avoid by following the code.

“As long as we know about the potential problems we can do something about them. Especially in the MEP sector, where we work with big names and are aware that it can be a difficult situation to find solutions (late on),” he said.

“Hence we welcome the introduction of standardisation as a main source to revert to with clients and consultants who are also aware of the same codes.”