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RINGING THE ALARM
On a Tuesday evening last August, a fire swept through the upper house of parliament, gutting the top floors of the 19th-century building. The incident, splayed across the international media, might have surprised some, but merely confirmed suspicions of an abysmal fire protection system. While the risks are obvious, achieving fire safety in Egypt remains a distant reality.
BY GEOFFREY CRAIG
On August 19, an air conditioning unit reportedly had a short circuit, sparking a fire on the third floor of the Shura Council. The flames quickly engulfed the rest of the historic building, requiring 18 hours to extinguish and destroying the building’s top floors.
The building had fire alarms, and internal fire control personnel rushed to control the flames, insists Sami Mahran, parliament’s secretary-general. He says the building’s wooden paneling, carpets and a new paint job helped to fuel the fire.
But his version of events has fallen on cynical ears. Most people fault the government for not having an adequate protection system, as well as the fire department for its ineffective response. Dozens of fire trucks came to the scene, but most firefighters remained outside the building, and few trucks actually sprayed water.
An army helicopter was summoned, instead, to scoop water from the Nile to dump on the flames, though it missed the target numerous times. The water had little effect in putting out the fire, but did manage to collapse part of the roof.
In the end, one firefighter was killed and dozens injured. It was a preventable tragedy, insiders believe, but not a surprising one considering the problems that Egypt faces in terms of fire protection and safety standards.
While construction of high-end real estate conforms to international standards, everyone else has yet to follow suit. The techniques and equipment required to outfit a building against fire are known and relatively cheap, but due to a lack of stringent enforcement many property owners skirt the rules – when possible.
The result is an atmosphere in which preventive measures aren’t taken, and low standards have become acceptable. “Every time you hear there was a fire, [you hear] there was an electrical arc, as if this is an excuse,” says Ahmed Magdy, an engineer at Egypt National, a local engineering firm. “Why is there an electrical arc in the first place? You should do the electrical installation properly.”
Not up to code
Yet, the rules are in place. Egypt has a fire code that is based on that of the United States’ National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a widely recognized standard. Local engineers say they regard the code as sufficient to safely protect a building.
The Civil Defense Authority, a division of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, must approve the design of any building under construction to ensure that it meets the local fire code. The problems begin during the construction phase, says Hussein Abbas, president of EHAF Consulting Engineers. “The implementation is not as good as the papers or the design. You go to execute the structure. The owners are starting to simplify, saying, ‘This is too high, this is not needed, or we will do it later on.’ You end up with something that doesn’t conform [to the design].”
As owners look for ways to cut costs, they may alter the original plans and reduce the degree of fire protection. But the money saved can be wiped out in the case of a fire, notes Medhat Riad, managing partner at Sodeco Specialties, a local company that provides fire protection systems. “If you think about the percentage over the cost, it’s really peanuts. I mean, it’s negligible compared to what the [cost of the] damage will be if there is a fire. But as Egyptians we [tend not to] think about the future. We just think about how much it will cost us now.”
One local expert figured that the cost for a new, state-of-the-art system represents 5 percent of total construction cost, a worthwhile expense because it protects the rest of the investment.
But this logic doesn’t always prevail. Although a fire code exists, property owners aren’t forced to adhere to the regulations because Civil Defense rarely conducts follow-up inspections. And when the government does issue fines, the amount isn’t enough to convince anyone to buy the necessary equipment. “The Civil Defense doesn’t have enough personnel to make the follow-up... And don’t think only about Cairo. In the south of Egypt, for instance, this really needs a lot of people.”
Making the grade
Regardless, some companies in Egypt still adhere to high fire safety standards. Places such as five-star hotels, shopping malls and office buildings may have internal policies, for instance, that mandate a range of fire protection techniques, such as smoke evacuation systems, fire resistant materials in doors, walls, carpets, cables and fans, and sealed elevator shafts.
These establishments also tend to be vigilant about training their staff in fire safety. Depending on the size of the organization, this means anything from instructing employees on how to use fire extinguishers and hoses to creating an in-house team of fire security experts.
The capacity to handle a small fire is particularly important because it may take a long time for the fire brigade to arrive due to the capital’s grinding traffic. With this in mind, some engineers say that they try to design buildings with extra water storage.
Yet most of the country doesn’t place an emphasis on such training, complains Magdy. “People think, ‘Now we have a building and now we can use it easily; there will be no problem with it.’ Of course, this is a big error.
“Operations and management are crucial. It is important to maintain a staff for protection against fire, trained to deal with fire, [and on] how to evacuate people, how to control a fire, how to use the fire hose and extinguishers, and how to monitor the fire alarm system.”
Assessing risk
Not every organization has strict internal guidelines, particularly small or independent ones. For them, the motivation to adopt fire security procedures would otherwise come from insurance companies, which must guarantee that the client is taking necessary steps to help prevent fire.
In Egypt, however, this mechanism hasn’t begun to function. Fire insurance isn’t popular among residential and commercial property owners, experts say. To the extent that it does exist, agents aren’t necessarily performing due diligence. They consider only the property value when calculating premium, according to Abbas. “[Insurance companies] go inside the apartment and evaluate the [potential] losses in case of a fire, and according to that they can estimate the premium. They are not evaluating fire safety; they are only concerned with the properties,” he says.
As a result, a client has little incentive to reduce risk because this can be shifted to the insurance company. In order to reduce moral hazard, insurance agents should calculate premiums based on risk assessment, for instance looking at whether flammable materials are stored securely and separate from the rest of the building. A client would then understand that taking additional steps to reduce risk also reduces the cost of the premium.
Part of the reason for this failure is that insurance companies don’t have staff with the right technical knowledge, Abbas believes. “The insurance companies here in Egypt are unfortunately not aware of the real problems encountered with fire.”
Ahmed El Sheikh, a risk management engineer at Arab Misr Insurance, acknowledges that insurance companies struggle to attract candidates with a technical background. Previously a fire specialist for Kuwait Airways, he regards his experience as unique.
“The problem is that Egypt has lots of people who have [fire risk assessment experience], but they are not working for insurance companies. They are working as health and safety managers in larger firms – hotels, factories and so on,” he says. “We don’t have this mentality that an engineer will work for an insurance company.” Rather, engineering graduates look for employment with contractors, construction companies and industry, but rarely consider insurance companies, he contends.
El Sheikh agrees that risk assessment is rare among insurance companies, though he says his company does conduct surveys that are used to calculate premiums, followed by an inspection every two years. When conducting surveys, in addition to examining the physical property, he also considers the people involved. “The major thing I try to understand in a survey is maintenance and the attitude of management,” he says. “What are their attitudes? Do they just want to transfer the risk to the insurance company? Or, are they aware of the risks on the premises and [seeking] to protect themselves?”
Afterwards, El Sheikh says he may issue a recommendation listing ways that a potential client can improve fire safety within a given timeframe. Most of his clients are industrial or commercial property owners, whereas a state-owned insurance company would typically insure government buildings.
A modern twist
The government owns many historic buildings, some of which store priceless artifacts, yet few measures are taken to protect these places against fire, engineers say. Part of the reason may be technical. It is a challenge to design a system that isn’t too expensive and doesn’t ruin a building’s aesthetic value.
“Some buildings are decorated with big domes, and it’s difficult to [place] sprinklers because you have high ceilings,” notes Magdy. “You don’t have the ceiling tiles where you can pass the pipes and put your sprinklers and detectors. You don’t want to damage the architecture.”
But engineers emphasize that methods exist to secure historic buildings against fire. For instance, it’s possible to use gas to extinguish a fire, thereby avoiding further damage caused when water is sprayed inside a building. This can be used in combination with a modern fire alarm system that can pinpoint a fire’s exact location inside a building, allowing emergency responders to act more quickly.
In addition to outfitting old buildings with modern fire protection systems, their best defense is actually the original construction, experts say. The Shura Council was unique among historic buildings because of the large amount of wood used in its construction.
“Most of them are built with very strong walls,” a local engineer said. “The thickness of walls is sometimes more than one meter. The building itself is a fire-rated application. In principle, no building [of this type] will collapse.”
But a problem with these buildings tends to be a lack of housekeeping and maintenance. Rooms are often converted into storage space to archive documents, for instance. This creates a danger because these boxes could end up stoking a fire.
Short-term memory
Following the fire last August, the government is pledging to address issues concerning fire safety. “I think the Shura fire sounded the alarm bells,” notes Ahmed Bassiouni, a project manager at Engineering Consultants Group. “The government, public companies and ministries are now reviewing protection systems in all their premises.”
But rhetoric aside, he acknowledges that the bigger hurdle is implementing change. The government’s budget is already strained, and it’s unclear yet where improving fire safety falls within a long queue of spending requests.
For that matter, even private companies face the same cost-benefit dilemma. In the aftermath of the Shura Council fire, some factory owners are requesting bank loans to establish modern fire security systems, according to state-run Al-Ahram newspaper. Factories in 10th of Ramadan and Sixth of October cities are asking for financing to purchase systems that cost between LE 50,000 and LE 100,000.
It’s too soon to gauge whether the private sector or government will improve their standards in light of the recent tragedy. Medhat Riad says that based on his experience trying to sell fire protection in Egypt, a revelation is unlikely.
A few years ago, for example, a fire destroyed a textile factory in 10th of Ramadan City, outside Cairo. The building collapsed because its structure used untreated steel. “After the fire, we went into the other factories, offering our services for spraying up the steel structure to protect the steel for up to four hours,” which cost LE 120 per square meter, he says. “When people thought about it and studied the costs, we [failed to convince even one person to buy].”
Khaled Bektash is the general manager of Fire Service, a local company that provides chemical treatment for materials against fire. He’s also skeptical that the recent fire will translate into more sales.
Although he initially received requests from business owners for information, Bektash says these calls haven’t translated into additional business. “After the fire, everyone picked up the phone and asked about prices, but implementation is something else,” he notes.
As an example, Bektash says that a contractor may budget a certain expense for fire protection before construction begins. To satisfy the owner, who has an eye on the bottom line, this expense is often kept low. So when the contractor actually tries to procure the system, he often finds that the market price is above the budgeted amount. The project continues anyway, without the fire protection system in place, he says.
Enforcing compliance
This scenario underscores a broader point that enforcement of the fire code is a must. Apart from Civil Defense conducting follow-up investigations and issuing stiffer fines, people need to be held accountable when a fire occurs due to negligence, industry insiders believe.
The first step would be an investigation into a fire’s causes. But this action is rarely taken. And when it is, the validity of the investigation’s findings is doubted. “The fire department’s conclusion is not always convincing,” says Abbas. “You can rarely have a clean and clear fire report because of political pressure or money pressure or insurance pressure. Finally, you have something distorted. The truth, you have to find by yourself.”
If someone is found to be negligent, then they should also be held criminally liable, meaning the possibility of serving a prison sentence. “If you go to an individual businessman who is building a factory, for example, and you tell him about this firefighting protection, he might think twice,” says Riad. “But he would never do it, unless there is a law.”
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A fiery record
Pictures of the thick, black smoke rising over downtown Cairo on August 19 from the historic Shura Council building made news around the world. But the country’s recent history has seen several other major fire tragedies.
Ask fire safety experts about prior blazes, and the first one that springs to mind is the fire at the Sheraton Heliopolis 18 years ago. In 1990, a fire spread from a tent restaurant to the main hotel, killing 17 people and destroying the building. The hotel was reportedly without a fire alarm or sprinklers.
This tragedy, insiders recall, served as a catalyst to adopt better fire protection systems in Cairo. Today, Cairo’s high-end property is in line with international standards, though accidents still happen. In November 2007, a fire broke out at CityStars shopping mall as welders worked in an unfinished restaurant. One worker was killed and 20 other individuals suffered from smoke inhalation. While the evacuation was disorderly, hundreds of people exited the building safely.
In 2001, at a theater festival in Beni Suef, a lit candle being used as a prop during a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet tipped over. The theater burned to the ground in an hour, killing 31 people trapped inside after more than 100 people rushed to the theater’s one exit door.
The following year, a train from Cairo to Luxor caught fire from a gas stove. More than 370 are believed to have died.
Another fire-related disaster occurred in 2006, when the boiler room of a ferry crossing the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia to the Egyptian port city of Safaga caught fire. The ferry sank as a result, killing more than 1,000 people.
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