Civil Defense geared up for Haj

Director General of Civil Defense Lt. Gen. Saad Al-Tuwaijri said Civil Defense was prepared to respond to potential hazards during Haj with a staff of 25,700 personnel, 6,900 vehicles, 19 helicopters and 450 fire extinguishing, ambulatory and rescue units covering Makkah, the holy sites and roads to Makkah and Madinah.
Al-Tuwaijri said in an interview with an Arabic newspaper that last year accidents declined by 35 percent as compared to the year before. Violations of the ban on liquefied gas inside lodgings had dropped largely as Haj groups had been made more aware. Only 10 Haj organizations (responsible for groups of domestic or foreign pilgrims) breached the ban last year. The gas cylinders were seized as a precautionary measure because it was their first violation, he said, adding that sanctions include fines that could reach up to SR 30,000 and imprisonment if violations were repeated.
Al-Tuwaijri said his department had issued 8,200 pilgrim accommodation permits (permits for owners of residential buildings who wish to rent their buildings out to pilgrim groups during Haj days) in Makkah and Madinah, and rejected 230 permit applications this year. Thirty-six percent of the pilgrims were staying in the Aziziya district, 19 percent in Masfalah, 13 percent in Rusayfah and 10 percent in Otaybiya, he said, attributing the reason to work on new projects around the Grand Mosque’s Central Zone.
He said that inspecting pilgrims’ accommodations for safety measures was carried out throughout the year by the Housing Committee which included a Civil Defense member. During Haj, the department’s preventive supervision teams and safety patrols check buildings’ automatic fire suppression systems, the presence of qualified safety supervisors and the availability of emergency exits.
“Work in major projects at the holy sites (including the mosque expansion project) is suspended during Haj days,” Al-Tuwaijri said. A plan was prepared to cover the areas of these suspended projects by Civil Defense services and organize pedestrian movements near them in cooperation with the Traffic Department and the mayor’s office. A large number of rescue, firefighter, rapid-intervention and ambulance teams would be present around these areas, he said.
The department’s plan during Haj deals with 12 potential hazards defined as a result of performance analysis and studies of past year’s Haj seasons. These hazards include floods, tremors, environmental hazards such as pollution and contamination, fires, chemical leakage, building collapses, jostling-related accidents and tunnel accidents.