DUBAI - Dubai Customs said it had conducted a complete mock evacuation drill, at its main building on Wednesday 30/12/2010, for employees and customers who were available in the building at the time of the mock operation. This evacuation training was implemented in response to ISO: 14001, Environment Management System and OHSAS18001.

The evacuation covered 1200 employees and customers, it was carried out within 4 minutes only, and this is a record time compared to the drill of June 2010 which took 7 minutes.

Senior Manager of Admin Affairs Dept in Dubai Customs Mansour Abu Asaiba said: “The imaginary drill aimed at ensuring how to deal under emergency conditions and raising employees’ awareness on safety and security procedures in accordance to OHSAS instructions. The training drill was actively exercised by all employees led by their top management under the leadership of His Excellence, Director General of Dubai Customs along with the executive directors who headed with other employees to the safe assembly point “A”, while customers rushed to assembly point “B”.

The civil defense, security patrols, police and ambulance immediately arrived at the location within 4 minutes. Staffs of these apparatuses weren’t informed by their superiors that it was just a drill and they dealt with it with the utmost level of seriousness.

The training scenario was started by switching off lights and the fire alarm was left on during the whole time of the exercise to serve as a resembling simulation of a real fire incidence.

Mansour noted that 35 coordinators from different departments in Dubai Customs were trained before the evacuation drill on the location of exits and how to make sure that they are free from any obstructive objects. A meeting was also conducted to coordinators to train them on their respective assignments. Jacket reflectors were distributed to the trained coordinators to help them be identified by other employees and clients.