01 Sep Four Months until UAE Deadline for Mandatory fire alarms in Villas
In September 2020, the Ministry of the Interior reported the beginning of a three-year implementation of new safety standards for villa owners – part of this involves mandatory fire alarms.
As of now, Villa owners have only four months to make the upgrades:
“The homeowner is responsible for installing the fire alarm system at homes, not the tenants,” a ministry official confirmed.
By the end of the four months, safety inspections that take place at Villas will involve checking appropriate fire alarms, and reporting if these have not been properly set up.
The push for working fire alarms comes after a worrying number of fires were reported in house fires.
In May, a fire at a villa in Abu Dhabi killed six people and injured seven. The victims were inside the house when the blaze broke out in the Al Moazaz area, southeast of Abu Dhabi city.
Following these incidents and the implementation of the new initiative, the Ministry reports that approximately 43,000 new detectors had been installed in villas across the country by mid-august.
“There is about an increase by 500 per cent of orders received every month from villa owners. This is due to availability of unique features such a native mobile app and enforcement of the Hassantuk mandate by Abu Dhabi municipality as part of the NOC process,” said Abdulla Al Ahmed, senior vice president of government sales at etisalat by e&.
