Fifth International Firefighting and Safety Conference and Exhibition

KUWAIT: Acting Director General of KFSD Maj Gen Khaled Al-Tarkait (center) and other KFSD officials attend the press conference. —Photo by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD) will hold the Fifth International Firefighting and Safety Conference and Exhibition from March 6 to 8, 2018 titled 'Researches and Studies'. It will be held under the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

The event will be attended by representatives of firefighting departments from the GCC countries and Jordan, in addition to seven international organizations. "We are keen to benefit from international conferences, especially the recommendations of these conferences," said Acting Director General of KFSD and Deputy Director General of the Human Resource Development Affairs Sector Maj Gen Khaled Al-Tarkait during a press conference held yesterday at the Regency Hotel to announce the event.

"The previous conferences were behind launching the hazardous material center and the technical rescue center. These two centers played a key role in dealing with many major accidents, the latest of which was two days back when poisonous gases spread in a house in Khaldiya," he said. The previous conferences focused on many issues. "They discussed issues such as training on dealing with high-rise buildings and researches, studies and others. Due to our interest in training, we signed a cooperation protocol with a German university specialized in firefighting sciences," stressed Tarkait.

Director of the Ahmadi Fire Service Directorate and head of the Shamel 4 team Moath Al-Hamadi noted that the next training session will be in cooperation with various local authorities and will be a part of the upcoming event. "The training will consist of dealing with fire and explosions at an oil refinery, unlike the previous three trainings that dealt with traffic accidents, a collision between two aircraft with debris falling in a residential area, and dealing with floods," he pointed out.

Dr Hani Al-Habani, supervisor of the workshops, said the main goal of the conference is to encourage the firefighters to follow the latest international researches. "This year's conference will include the Shamel 4 exercise, which is one of the most important exercises in Kuwait, in which 13 public authorities will be participating," he said. The supervisor of the event Abbas Ali highlighted the fact that all the previous conferences were very useful for all participating bodies. He added they are considering holding live training exercises at event sites, but this proposal is under study.

By Nawara Fattahova