MAKKAH: The staff of the Operations Room of the Civil Defense here will be subject to punishment if they fail to respond to emergency calls before the third ring of the telephone, head of the room, Major. Naqa Al-Otaibi, told Arab News in an interview. He categorically denied accusations that they sometimes do not respond to telephone calls from people needing help.
“This is false accusation. If our staff fail to answer before the telephone rings for the third time, they will be held responsible and will be ultimately punished,” he asserted.
Al-Otaibi said there are recording systems in the room that automatically record all incoming calls.
“Monthly reports about these calls are compiled. If it is found that a telephone call was not answered before the third ring, this will be considered a delay in response and the shift working that day will be questioned and punished,” he said. He explained the activities of the room that works around the clock and said it has many channels through which is running the business. These included:
n The accidents channel, which directs the field teams and transport them to the place of the incident;
n The computer channel, which records all events and registers when the teams have moved and when they reached their destinations. The response of the teams should be in less than a minute otherwise this will be considered a punishable delay.
n The operation channel (998), which works round the clock to receive and deal with complaints. The staff of this channel will receive information by telephone and relay them to the team fields to give them a complete picture of what they are heading for.
n The safety channel, which supports the accidents channel and is responsible for the dispatch of the safety teams riding motorbikes and small cars. Because of the size of their vehicles, these teams will be the first to reach the incident sites. These are the most pressurized teams because of the large number of visitors around the central area near the Holy Mosque.
n The support service channel, which mobilizes heavy truck and machinery, especially at the times of building collapses.
Al-Otaibi said the Operations Room is supplied by a sufficient number of telephone lines and is manned by enough staff working in five shifts 24/7. He said there are hotlines dedicated to some parties and added that a study was conducted to link high buildings and towers automatically with the Operations Room. He said the implementation of the study began with linking the King Abdul Aziz Awkaf in Makkah with the room.
Al-Otaibi said they depend on the geographical answering system when the informant is not quite sure about the place of the incident.
“We use this system to reach the site of the accident quickly and accurately without losing any time,” he said.
Al-Otaibi said satellites photographed Makkah and that the aerial photos were fed into computer to enable them to reach any destination in the holy city within minutes.
He said the Operations Room receives and deals with a daily average of 10,000 calls ranging from reporting of incidents to asking for information. He warned against false information and said during the past three months there were 71 of them.
