How fire safe is your Nursery in DubaiA nursery environment usually caters to two things. Firstly it should be flexible and secondly it

should provide a fun and colourful environment for the children attending the nursery; while being safe at the same time.

After the recent tragedy that occurred in Doha, there has suddenly been a rise in the number of inquiries when it comes to fire safety, at the many nurseries and preschools in Dubai. Safety has always been a concern when developing or designing the interiors of any nursery. A nursery environment usually caters to two things. Firstly it should be flexible and secondly it should provide a fun and colourful environment for the children attending the nursery; while being safe at the same time. The right type of insulation must be used because the both the teachers and the children should be given enough time in case a fire starts out. Every fire starts out small and the job of the fire safety inspector is to make sure that the insulation and the safety equipment installed either prevents or gives the occupants in a building enough time to escape. However not everything can be made fireproof. Fire safety is the key.

Fire safety in every nursery is a must. But awareness about what must be done if a fire starts, is even more important. Training is the eventual answer to successfully avoiding accidents and mishaps that lead to fires. This in turn depends on the educators or teachers and the rest of the staff including the kids who attend the nursery.

Fire safety is not something that can be deployed and can become functional in a day’s time. It requires days of training, strategy and finally implementation, on the side of the educators and staff at a nursery. Once that has been set up, fire drills need to be conducted, and the kids should be explained about fire hazards and how and when they are supposed to follow the drill. Fire drills need to be conducted regularly because the situation becomes even more crucial

when nurseries in Dubai are located inside buildings on the higher levels. On the brighter side though, such commercial complexes have well designed fire-detection and extinguishing systems as well as capacious fire exits that have been designed keeping a rather large number of people in mind.

Fire-safety training and inspection was always a must, but some had begun to take it lightly. The tragic incident at Doha was a staunch reminder to all those who are involved with childcare to get themselves upgraded and to work on existing fire-safety and prevention plans. The need of the hour is to keep reminding ourselves that almost any fire can be avoided; provided we are prepared for it.