The 5th edition of the Middle East FireSafe Conference, a forum highlighting the importance of fire safety benchmarks in the Middle East, inaugurated yesterday at the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa in Dubai. The three-day event is being supported by the Directorate General of Civil Defence Dubai.

Delivering keynote addresses were Col Salim Khalifa Al Muqarrab, Assistant General Director for Prevention and Protection Affair in Dubai Civil Defence, Vladimir Kuvshinov; Secretary General of International Civil Defence Organisation (ICDO) and AC Christopher Tan, Director Fire Safety & Shelter Department from Singapore Civil Defence Force. A Visionary Roundtable also saw these experts discuss issues related to fire safety commitments and stakeholder engagement.

A broad session later in the day covered different steps to fire safety analysis. Where Senior Standards Researcher at the GCC Standardization Organization spoke on standardization and the role of uniformity in safety and reliability, Drew Azzara of NFPA spoke on the aspects and the dynamics of fire safety codes stating "Conformity of codes is the underline of a sound system.”

Fire Safety has also seen a lot of development on the technology front. Updating the attendees on the latest enhancements in fire maintenance was Feumat – a company that specialises in quality management solutions for fire extinguisher maintenance. Another major feature was the latest fire protection strategy in Waterless Fire Safety – a waterless foam system that was presented by Dr. Istvan Szocs, PhD. Inventor of FoamFatale® Technology and Chairman at TFEX Engineering.

Sessions also witnessed key speakers from ZADCO, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), Technical Committee GGF, British Standards Institute for Building Construction B7974 and Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

Day two of the event today will look into the different genres of fire safety and will hear from various industry heads. Government representation will see Lt. Col Jamal Ahmed from Depart of Civil Defense speaking on 'Fire Safety Harmonisation' and Raed Al – Marzouqui of Dubai Municipality will address the measures to prevent fire initiation by analyzing the root causes.

Issues regarding fire safety that effect the oil and gas sector like containing tank fires and fire risk assessment will be addressed by leaders from ENOC LLC and Saudi Aramco respectively. Speakers from Roads and Transport, Dubai Airports and ARUP will address issues from the infrastructure perspective. A major session covering investigation and reporting alongside a master class will be facilitated by Dr. Peter Mansi, President of the International Association for Arson Investigators IAAI.

Dirk Schmitz of One Seven, Gold Sponsor for the event, will also be speaking on the increasing risks with modern technology and how to improve firefighter's safety. Official Testing Partner for the event, Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants are also schedule to cover aspects of testing for passive fire protection elements and putting safety to test. A closing panel will see e experts from the day discuss on a holistic strategy in fire-safety and the role of stakeholders in this commitment.

The third day of the forum will feature post conference workshops. The morning session conducted will feature technology to deal with large scale fires specific to conditions in the Middle East by Dr. Szocs and the afternoon session will be a training on Mobile Fire Extinguisher Trainer (MFET) conducted by Saif Almeskiri, Head of Loss Prevention Department at DUBAL.

Supporting the event were leading companies from the industry that include One Seven (Gold Sponsor); Feumat (Fire Protection and Maintenance Partner); TFEX (Workshop Leader); NAFFCO (Lunch Sponsor); AP Sensing, Middle East Specialized Cables Co. (MESC) (Bronze Sponsors); Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants (Official Testing Partner); Prysmian Group, Unisafe (Exhibitors); Bavaria Holding (Visiting Partner) and Exelis (Networking Partner).