ABU DHABI // Fires were extinguished by civil defence and the victims taken to safety by ambulances after an earthquake hit Abu Dhabi Tuesday – but it was all just a live simulation exercise.
Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, tweeted a video of the demonstration, called Aftershock, to promote a coordinated response to emergencies and public safety readiness.
The event, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, signalled the opening of the three-day International Exhibition for Security and National Resilience (ISNR) in which hundreds of exhibitors in homeland security and national resilience, information security and critical infrastructure security took part.
In the demonstration, several buildings were struck and a large plume of smoke escaped from a tower as police, civil defence and ambulance units were dispatched to the scene. Dozens of actors screamed in panic and another was taken to safety from the top of a burning building in a simulation of a helicopter rescue.
Special task forces set up an official security cordon while a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) team arrived on the scene to analyse the gas pipelines and explosions in the area.
A security media vehicle was dispatched to cover the incident, and mobile field hospitals were used to receive the injured rescued from a under a pile of rubble.
Search-and-rescue teams worked alongside highly trained K9 units. One actor was on fire and another jumped from the blazing tower on to an airbag safety mattress. Firefighters quickly put out the flames.
But the event was not only for disasters on land.
“The conference is very useful for us to implement new rules in the UAE and give more information on how to be safe for anybody using the UAE waters,” said Capt Humaid Al Suwaidi, a coastguard at the Critical Infrastructure and Coastal Protection Authority.
“We have been installing tracking systems on all ships and vessels for the past two years to help or assist people at sea in times of danger or during a medical situation.”
The authority has installed the system on 85 per cent of all ships in the UAE, including small vessels, leisure and fishing boats.
"There are currently two major threats at sea, which are oil smugglers and drug trafficking," he said. "The general situation in the Gulf is that there has been an increase in oil smugglers, so we are constantly strengthening our security."
Nils-Erik Lindblom, director of marketing and sales of CBRN vehicle systems at Saab Technologies, a defence and security company in Sweden, said he hoped the conference would help increase their work in the UAE.
“We work a lot in CBRN, the naval and land domain, and we’re increasing our work in the land domain,” he said. “Our system can detect and monitor substances and immediately send it to headquarters. We’re here to show our CBRN capabilities.”
The company works with the UAE Government in naval operations.
Dr Peter Reimers, managing director of Tescon, a German security systems company, has been working in the Middle East for the past 10 years. But the UAE is a new market for the company.
“We manufacture road blockers and sliding gates to secure premises, entry and exit points against intruders,” he said. “The conference is a good way to meet customers and, at the moment, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is a potential customer for government buildings.”
His security systems can be used in hotels and can stop a 7.5 tonne-lorry travelling at 80kph.
"It's important to have such systems because the global threat of terrorism is growing," he said.
cmalek@thenational.ae