Using Modern Technologies to Cut Down Emergency Response Time

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Monday, March 30th 2015 [ME NewsWire]

Lt. General HH Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, officially inaugurated the first phase of the Smart Civil Defense Stations project in Abu Dhabi. The ceremony was held at the Abu Dhabi Civil Defense General Directorate’s Operations Room at the Qubeisat Civil Defense Station on Monday. The project is designed to boost civil defense stations’ preparedness and operational capabilities, monitoring and maintaining effective command and control of events from the Operations Room.

 His Highness reviewed the project’s key objectives, which are intended to support and develop civil defense teams’ performance; achieve emergency response in the shortest time possible; and ensure timely arrival to the incident site. This would mark a qualitative leap in the quest to improve civil defense stations’ services.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Major General Dr. Nasser Lakhrebani Al Nuaimi, Secretary General of the Office of HH Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Federal Civil Defense Sector Development Council; Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Director General of Central Operations at Abu Dhabi Police; Major General Salem Al Shamesi, Deputy Director General of Finance and Services; Brigadier Ali Khalfan Al Dhaheri, Director General of the Headquarters Affairs at Abu Dhabi Police; and Colonel Juma Al Dahmani, Acting Director General of Abu Dhabi Civil Defense.

Sheikh Saif carried out a drill using the new system to measure response time of a number of civil defense stations chosen randomly. He also attended an in-field testing of the smart civil defense stations system, whereas he reviewed the different stages of work and the proper ways of receiving and handling incoming emergency calls. Sheikh Saif also inspected the civil defense vehicles and met with the committee in charge of the project, praising the work team’s diligent efforts and constructive ideas in completing the project.

His Highness, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, toured the different facilities at the Qubeisat Civil Defense Station and urged staff members to maintain the distinguished achievements and to further contribute to improving the services provided by the civil defense sector to society.

Colonel Mohammed Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Executive Office of the Federal Civil Defense Sector Development Council, briefed His Highness about the project, which allows the operations room to electronically control civil defense stations. “As soon as the operations room is notified of an accident, the closest civil defense station in its area of jurisdiction is dispatched electronically through the system. The system operates by sounding the alerting siren, lighting the passageways and the parking space, and opening bay doors automatically,” he said. He also indicated that all civil defense stations across the emirate are linked to the Central Operations Department of Abu Dhabi Police.

Colonel Al Nuaimi also enumerated the different smart systems that will be installed at the Smart Civil Defense Stations, notably, performance indicators to measure emergency teams response time and readiness and preparedness of civil defense stations; decoders that would sound the fire alarm siren at the closest station from the main operations rooms; accidents reporting and statistics; security surveillance of stations; access control including entry and exiting screening; identifying civil defense vehicles while responding to accidents; intercom systems; building management; and provision of water and electricity.

He also noted that the set of smart systems used in the project will allow the Civil Defense General Directorate to control civil defense stations via specially designed platforms. Through these platforms, the main operations room would sound the fire alarm siren; electronically open bay doors; switch lights on and off; provide civil defense members with information and guidance on the accident’s location and type while heading to the vehicles through loudspeakers; assess the teams deployment time, starting from the receipt of the call to the minute when the first vehicle leaves the station. All of these systems operate according to international standards.

Adding further, Colonel Al Nuaimi said: “The system contributes automatically to reducing energy consumption significantly, and measure water levels in the tanks. It also allows senior officers to monitor the stations via Smartphones round the clock.” He also noted that the project is one of the strategic initiatives implemented by the civil defense sector, and will include in the first phase 23 civil defense stations in Abu Dhabi City. In the second phase, the project will be implemented across Al Ain and the Western Region (Al Gharbia) stations; and finally at the rest of the stations in all of the cities across the UAE in the third phase. The key objective of the project is to establish performance indicators to measure emergency response time according to international standards. It is an integrated smart management system designed to improve civil defense stations’ readiness and capabilities, and is fully supported by the Federal Civil Defense Sector Development Council.

In conclusion, H.H Sheikh Saif bin Zayed was briefed by Major Muhammad Al Buraiki, Project Manager, about the system’s work mechanism. He said: “The allows the Civil Defense General Directorate to operate and run civil defense stations via control platforms, which can activate fire alarm sirens across the stations upon receiving the fire alert; open bay doors; switch lights on or off; provide instructions and guidance to civil defense staff members; and receive indicators on the stations' status: ‘station ready to receive alerts’ – ‘station on duty and responding to an emergency alert’ – ‘ station under maintenance’; as well as indicators pertaining to water levels in the tanks.

For more information about:

The Ministry of Interior, please click HERE

Abu Dhabi Police, please click HERE

Follow us and check our Social Media feeds on: YouTube, Facebook and Twitter

The Arabic-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the Arabic-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.

Contacts

The UAE Minister of Interior's General Secretariat, Tactical Affairs and Security Media Department

Abu Dhabi Police GHQ - Security Media

Chris Cron +971-(0)-50-987-1317

E-mail: cron.media@hotmail.com

Permalink: http://me-newswire.net/news/14159/en