DUBAI // Owners of high-rise buildings with flammable cladding will have to adopt new fire-safety measures under rules announced by Civil Defence chiefs.
The rules, which will apply to existing towers and those yet to be built, include installing a ring of fire-retardant panels every three floors to stop fires spreading, and external sprinklers.
The measures are an extension of the Fire and Life safety code drawn up by the Ministry of Interior and introduced late last year.
Maj Jamal Ibrahim, director of the preventive safety department of Dubai Civil Defence, said the new code needed to apply to existing buildings, not just new ones.
“In existing buildings we have been trying to find solutions that are not too costly for the owner, or that will cause the building to close,” said Maj Ibrahim. “We just want more safety requirements.
“One is outdoor sprinklers. Another is to have fire-retardant cladding every three floors.”
It is believed that about 70 per cent of high-rise buildings in Dubai use cladding with a highly flammable thermo-plastic core.
“Also, there are more general safety issues,” Maj Ibrahim said. “No barbeques, shisha or gas cylinders. This will stop any cause of the fire.”
The new rules were announced at the Fire Safety, Standards and Regulations Forum at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
While most towers have indoor sprinklers and fire hoses, very few have a means of controlling a blaze if it spreads to the outside.
Maj Ibrahim said there was, as yet, no deadline for building owners to implement the new measures.
“We are still working on it,” he said.
This week Arab Orient, the insurer of Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), agreed to pay for damages caused in the fire that destroyed one side of the 34-storey building in November last year.
Owners of apartments were unsure whether the payout would cover the cost of replacing all of the cladding panels with fire-resistant ones, or just those damaged in the blaze.
But Maj Ibrahim said regardless of who paid for the repairs, as the building had been damaged by fire the cladding on the entire tower must be replaced by new, safety-tested panels.
“There must be new cladding across the whole building,” he said. “As soon as there’s a fire, it must be all completely replaced.”
He said he would this week meet an official from Trakhees, the authority that regulates free zones such as JLT, about the issue.
A discarded cigarette butt is thought to have ignited rubbish piled up outside Tamweel Tower, according to a report compiled by the Dubai Police forensic department.
It found the November 18 fire, which gutted half of the tower block, began in a pile of paper, tape and wood in an outdoor passageway at the base of the building. It had been left there by contractors working on a shop inside the building.
Once lit, the fire quickly spread up the highly flammable building cladding, which contained aluminium and fibreglass, to the roof.
From there, blazing chunks of cladding rained on the balconies and cars below. The fire spread inside the building mainly through the balconies.
Dr Sarah Colwell, head of suppression at the UK fire research company BRE Global, conducted research on flammable cladding 1990s after a number of related fires.
Speaking at Intersec, Dr Colwell said extensive testing and modelling should be carried out before before safety systems such as external sprinklers were installed to ensure they were effective.
“There are potentially a number of different approaches and it would be a case of just looking at each one individually”, she said.
"What needs to be done is an assessment on how that would work on that particular design, and looking at whether they can use it on that building in practice. All of that needs to be looked at."
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Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)
Citizenship-by-investment programmes
United Kingdom
The UK offers three programmes for residency. The UK Overseas Business Representative Visa lets you open an overseas branch office of your existing company in the country at no extra investment. For the UK Tier 1 Innovator Visa, you are required to invest £50,000 (Dh238,000) into a business. You can also get a UK Tier 1 Investor Visa if you invest £2 million, £5m or £10m (the higher the investment, the sooner you obtain your permanent residency).
All UK residency visas get approved in 90 to 120 days and are valid for 3 years. After 3 years, the applicant can apply for extension of another 2 years. Once they have lived in the UK for a minimum of 6 months every year, they are eligible to apply for permanent residency (called Indefinite Leave to Remain). After one year of ILR, the applicant can apply for UK passport.
The Caribbean
Depending on the country, the investment amount starts from $100,000 (Dh367,250) and can go up to $400,000 in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take between four to five months to receive a passport.
Portugal
The investment amount ranges from €350,000 to €500,000 (Dh1.5m to Dh2.16m) in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take a maximum of six months to receive a Golden Visa. Applicants can apply for permanent residency after five years and Portuguese citizenship after six years.
“Among European countries with residency programmes, Portugal has been the most popular because it offers the most cost-effective programme to eventually acquire citizenship of the European Union without ever residing in Portugal,” states Veronica Cotdemiey of Citizenship Invest.
Greece
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Greece is €250,000, making it the cheapest real estate residency visa scheme in Europe. You can apply for residency in four months and citizenship after seven years.
Spain
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Spain is €500,000. You can apply for permanent residency after five years and citizenship after 10 years. It is not necessary to live in Spain to retain and renew the residency visa permit.
Cyprus
Cyprus offers the quickest route to citizenship of a European country in only six months. An investment of €2m in real estate is required, making it the highest priced programme in Europe.
Malta
The Malta citizenship by investment programme is lengthy and investors are required to contribute sums as donations to the Maltese government. The applicant must either contribute at least €650,000 to the National Development & Social Fund. Spouses and children are required to contribute €25,000; unmarried children between 18 and 25 and dependent parents must contribute €50,000 each.
The second step is to make an investment in property of at least €350,000 or enter a property rental contract for at least €16,000 per annum for five years. The third step is to invest at least €150,000 in bonds or shares approved by the Maltese government to be kept for at least five years.
Candidates must commit to a minimum physical presence in Malta before citizenship is granted. While you get residency in two months, you can apply for citizenship after a year.
Egypt
A one-year residency permit can be bought if you purchase property in Egypt worth $100,000. A three-year residency is available for those who invest $200,000 in property, and five years for those who purchase property worth $400,000.
Source: Citizenship Invest and Aqua Properties
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
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Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
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How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Austrian Grand Prix race timings
Weekend schedule for Austrian Grand Prix - all timings UAE
Friday
Noon-1.30pm First practice
4-5.30pm Second practice
Saturday
1-2pm Final practice
4pm Qualifying
Sunday
4pm Austrian Grand Prix (71 laps)
