Fire safety training remains big business

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Fenton said that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were particularly good opportunities for expansion.

A leading expert has described fire safety training as a major growth market in the Gulf with a large level of potential.

Mark Fenton, business leader of Honeywell Life Safety Middle East (HLS), said that the company had enjoyed considerable growth in the last five years and was expanding across the region.

"There is a real thirst for knowledge on fire safety in this region," he said. "The market wants to understand the risks and how to deal with them."

He remained optimistic about 2009, suggesting that the Middle East market would remain vibrant despite a projected global real estate slowdown.

"There are a lot of opportunities in this region," said Fenton. "Particularly there is a lot of expansion in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. As long as there is demand for life safety equipment, business will continue to run smoothly. We will continue to hire staff in 2009."

Fenton conceded that the region was in need of more awareness and training, and particularly cited fire drills as an area for improvement. "Fire drills here are not necessarily carried out as rigorously as we'd recommend," he said.

"Considering the recent spate of fires and accidents lately due to the sheer scale of construction, training and fire drills to prevent these will go a long way."

He pointed out that HLS had been working closely with Dubai Civil Defence, drafting new fire and life safety codes for different buildings and applications.

"Our next initiative with Dubai Civil Defence is to look at training levels and how we can  structure programmes for fire crews, building inspectors and installers so that there is a higher degree of awareness and confidence," said Fenton.

"It is important that they understand what is going to be mandated in the future and how to apply that to their role and therefore improve the general safety for everyone."

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