UAE firefighters put through extreme tests with Jaheziya training programmes

ABU DHABI // The most frightening part of training for firefighting recruits is often not facing a raging blaze but learning how to do it in total darkness.

And some do not pass the test, which is part of the emergency response training programmes at Jaheziya, a disaster management facility in Mussaffah.

Trainees must learn to communicate and navigate in confined spaces without being able to see, relying only on speech and touch. They must also fight the fear-induced urge to use more oxygen, a full tank of oxygen usually lasts 35 to 40 minutes.

“This is a very important and strict course,” said Mubarak Al Zaabi, a health, safety and security manager at Jaheziya.

Jaheziya, the brand name for the Tawazun Safety, Security and Disaster Management City, has trained more than 3,000 people since 2012. It was established to standardise and improve crisis response readiness across the country and in different sectors.

It provides courses in helicopter firefighting and damage control, basic first aid and firefighting, and gas tester training. Jaheziya plans to build specialised aviation, maritime, health and safety, and transport zones.

Trainees include members of the police, military, civil defence and other government agencies, as well as workers in industries such as nuclear, biological, chemical, oil and gas, and construction.

Different organisations may use different standards – such as British or American systems – for emergency response.

That could mean that during an emergency “you will find a huge conflict”, said Mr Al Zaabi.

“It is like putting a table where you have an English guy and a Spanish guy and you tell them, OK, now communicate.”

Jaheziya has 17 trainers, 12 of them Emirati, as well as English, Arabic and Hindi speakers. It also plans to create hazardous materials, aviation and industrial training areas in the city.

Fifteen Emirati firefighting recruits for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company trained at Jaheziya last Thursday in a scenario in which they had to ensure that everyone was evacuated from the building and extinguish the fire.

Everything is difficult in learning to fight fires, according to Ali Al Hosani, a Jaheziya trainer. Recruits’ protective gear can weigh more than nine kilograms, and temperatures in the mock building range from 450°C to 755°C in a strong blaze.

“You must deal with it even if it is difficult,” he said. “We are here to train people.”

Jaheziya also provides basic offshore emergency training courses required for professionals such as technicians and engineers working offshore in the oil and gas industry.

The courses include scenarios such as how to evacuate a helicopter in the water, either floating on the surface, partially submerged or capsized.

It is important for trainees to learn to locate the window since it is easy to become disoriented in an emergency.

“The capsize scenarios are the ones probably that people fear the most because of the disorientation,” said Chris Lawson, a training manager at Jaheziya.

Trainees also learn techniques such as jumping to a life raft from a platform and to attract the attention of a rescue plane.

“If you haven’t got this basic training, then it could be catastrophic because they would not know what to do. So the training is actually vital to the oil and gas industry,” said Mr Lawson.

In Britain, an explosion at the Piper Alpha oil production platform in the North Sea in 1988 killed 167 people. That led to the adoption of new offshore safety regulations.

“The trainings are invaluable,” said Mr Lawson.

lcarroll@thenational.ae