A new set of regulations due to be added to the UAE Fire and Safety Code will be delayed until next month, a senior official has said.
Major General Expert Rashid Thani Al Matroushi, director of Dubai Civil Defence, revealed that a new list of standards and requirements to fire safety of high rise buildings in the UAE will be applied in May, according to a report in the Arabic daily newspaper Al Bayan.
The new specifications would require installing a fire insulation layer in every two floors of the buildings to stop fires from spreading to the higher or lower floors.
The layers will include non-flammable material that isolated and maintains the fire in the existing two floors only.
Officials said in March that building owners will be required to renew no-objection certificates (NOCs) every year from civil defence to ensure structures remain safe as opposed to present conditions of obtaining only one NOC on initial completion of the building.
A comprehensive list of tests that must be carried out on a regular basis have also been added.
The changes to the UAE fire code come in light of the high profile fire at The Address Downtown hotel on New Year’s Eve.
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