Dubai Civil Defence (DCD) is continually working to improve citizens safety. Having implemented a ground-breaking 24×7 Smart Monitoring System for automating fire alarm monitoring and emergency dispatch for business premises in Dubai that has reduced the number of fire incidents by 61%, it is now doing the same for homes in the Emirate.
The Smart Monitoring System for Homes connects the residents to the 24×7 Command Control Centre enabling the building occupants to alert Dubai Civil Defence in the event of a fire or any life and safety incident at their premises. This gives the best possible opportunity to deal with any emergency, before it has chance to take hold and cause substantial loss.
This innovative system allows citizens to report an emergency alarm to Dubai Civil Defence at the click of a button. The alarm once reported provides dispatchers with a detailed view of the location and readiness of all the emergency service vehicles. Using state-of-the-art M2M technology, and a world-leading 24 x7 DCD Command Control Centre on a cloud computing platform, this wireless system replaces out-dated terrestrial line based system to deliver faster response times and higher efficiency.
With an increasing number of emergency incidents related to fire at homes, DCD saw the need to modernise and transform the fire and rescue service provided for the residents of the Emirate. DCD have made the most of new technology to provide the best possible value from the investment needed to meet new safety challenges. New technology, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT), is the pathway forward to meeting these challenges.
The Smart Monitoring System for Homes uses ICT to save lives and protect residents by connecting the premises to a central Command Control Centre where alarms are monitored, false alarms are filtered out, and genuine alarms trigger the rapid dispatch of an emergency response vehicle at the click of a button.
All the information about the type of emergency, the location, building pictures, the escape routes and any special hazards is transferred automatically to the vehicle and its crew while en route to the emergency. Having this system in place ensures that DCD or a third party is contacted immediately in an emergency no matter what it is.
The special information on the residence including location map, shortest route to the building, building picture, exit-entry points etc. are pre-populated in the system which comes up on the computer screen whenever an alarm is received from the respective home.
Thus, if there is a disabled person in the home who needs special assistance this fact will be known to the operator and can be passed to the fire crew. Moreover, the cost of adding Smart Monitoring System to a residential building is relatively small.
Drones are watching over Dubai
Dubai Civil Defence have introduced drones in firefighting operations to supplement the aerial and other information gathered at emergency incidents.
The drones are capable of flying over the fire scene immediately providing live video updates to the control room of Dubai Civil Defence. At the ground level, the drones will enable the DCD staff inside the control room to gain quick insight into the emergency situation and respond back more efficiently.
Colonel Ali Hassan Al-Mutawa, Assistant Director of the Smart Services Department at Dubai Civil Defence said: “One of our key responsibilities to the public is to remain fully alert while managing our resources effectively and efficiently in facing emergency situations. By collecting real-time video information faster and sharing that intelligence across more channels, we are better able to help Dubai progress towards its goal of becoming the happiest city in the world and achieve its Smart Vision goals.”
Impressively, another item of advanced technology that DCD have commissioned is named ‘Dolphin’. This was being used as a firefighting jetpack before the drones were introduced. The Dolphin raises a firefighter into the sky (aiming at the target) by using the water pressure generated by an attached jet ski. And this actually works! In February 2017, Dubai Civil Defence teams were able to save 14 sailors from a fire that broke out on a boat in Dubai Creek using the firefighting jetpacks.
For more information, go to www.dcd.gov.ae
