Negligent Mall/Business Owners
This appalling tragedy could have been avoided had basic safety precautions been in place. No evacuation plan, no sprinkler system, no fire marshals/trained staff or any awareness of who was in the building. No floor plans indicating there is a nursery so pleading mothers were turned away by firefighters who were not made aware of the nursery until it was too late. A nursery in an upstairs backroom (a storage area?) with no fire exit and approached by a long corridor with no fire doors. The responsible parties here are the Qatari owners of these businesses and they must be held accountable. What about other childrens’ play areas in shopping centres in Doha? Where are the fire exits in Jungle Zone (Hyatt Plaza), Circus Land (Landmark) etc? Do the staff know what to do in an emergency? For those of you here or planning to come and live here beware – high end shops and shiny skyscrapers do not mean this country has the same systems/values/regulations with regards to health and safety.
out of that school right away, ok?
Then go and find another school for your child. But before you enrolled your child, do the same procedure. Go to the reception and ask the same queries you asked in the current school. If you find it satisfactory, then nobody stops you from transfering.
Yes, you are not paranoid but you are over-reacting. Calm down and talk to the higher up as you were informed. And better talk to the teacher also, they are the one directly involved. I think you'll find a more sensible answer. But my suggestion, look around first and try to find what you are looking for before asking them.
Yesterday I went to our school and asked the lady at the reception about fire procedure. There was a plan on the wall, but lady was very surprised to see it. In the plan was written - take children to the designated assembly area. When I asked her where that area is she changed her attitude and became rude and angry - ask that lady, she said. So I was redirected to another staff member of administration. The other lady had no idea about this "so called" assembly point, but was more creative in generating the story about next week fire drill. Ok, I said, that's very good. But what about this week, what about today? How many exits you have in your gym? Lady was not sure - a.... two, I think... or maybe three... I guess.... Then I asked if they had extinguishers in the class rooms. Lady had no idea - well... she said, - I guess so... maybe not in every class, but I suppose they should have... And finally lady had enough of me and said - if you want any info about this, you should make an appointment with deputy principal....
Now, please, tell me - am I paranoid, am I wrong, am I asking too much? I cannot understand why should I make an appointment with a deputy principal to find out about fire drill? Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that administration staff in the school must be aware of this issue. This is school, for goodness sake! I understand, that if I was somewhere in Somalia of Malawi, I would not ask the same questions. But we are in Qatar, and I pay really good money for this school. So - where are the safety standards? Or it's all about put your hands in the air give me all your money? All the members of staff in administration department are very well aware how you must pay for the next term. And no one knows if there is an extinguisher in the class room?
My friend went to Fun City which is on first floor in centrepoint and asked them about fire exits... the staff had no idea where they were, if any and to be honest I couldn't see any fire exits as such when i was there. What i mean to say is that there were no big obvious signs.
Another friend said she knew that Jungle Zone had fire exits- only problem was that they were painted the same colour as the walls so were not obvious. At least that's on the ground floor I suppose.
I do know that the SEC and ministry is pretty strict on health and safety when it comes to granting licenses for nurseries and schools. A friend of mine was declined permission for a creche in the basement of a building because their were no proper fire exits and windows etc. the ministry and the fire dept came to check the location, I think the loophole lies in the fact that these daytime mall activity centers are not given the same importance or duty of care even though they are responsible for children. The government needs to reassess and make new laws to include these kinds of facilities in he stringent checks that they appear to do for normal nurseries.
I know a lot of people have defended the lady who owns the nursery but I cant help feeling that she had a duty of care towards her staff and those children regardless of how the mall dealt with its safety issues.
It is not enough for someone who has care of children to rely on licenses and government loopholes. In my opinion she had a responsibility as well to train her staff and ensure those children were not in danger if anything happened.
The fact that there was a false alarm the day before should have been a warning for the owner..what would have happened if it really had been a fire? unfortunately we all found out. I feel sorry for her because she is going to have to live with the knowledge that those people and kids died because of her negligence as well as villagio's. What a burden to carry. It doesn't matter if she is absolved of duty of care by the investigation- in her heart she must know she could have helped prevent the tragedy. You cant absolve yourself by saying well the license was granted- not my responsibility or problem.
Another friend visited the gympanzee centre and told me that he realised striaghtaway the dangers the corridor posed and the narrow entrance and stairwell to the room itself as well as the lack of windows opening to the outside or even to the mall itself. His regret is that he wasnt more vocal about it. He simply didnt put his child in there because of those reasons.
It shows that perhaps we should be more vocal, leave suggestion cards, phone people, management, magazines, newspapers etc to draw attention to these kinds of dangers.
in malls, directional signs are all over. The only concern is if they are open or not.
And I am glad that awareness regrading this things are high now.
Until the owners of the buisnesses are held accountable you will not see real change. My guess is the expat manager of the mall will end up taking all the blame and the powerful guy that owns it just walks away.
Maybe in the long run you should also try to get hold of a gun. You never know.
If the Qatari authorities do not have the competence to ensure our personal safety then we need to look after ourselves and our families. I will be looking for emergency exits for the rest of my stay in Doha...
You forgot city center fun city on the 3rd floor....3rd FLOOR! do they have any fire exits there? I am really wondering, if i take my kid to a play ground next time, and ask the staff to show me the fire exits, will they know? And what shall i do if the staff is not aware of any fire drill? Where can i report it? Coz from now on that is what i will do - ask about fire exits. We take everything for grunted - we go to the mall and think that it is safe. (Comment deleted by mod).
The fire exits in Landmark are also locked, and they don't appear on the location plan either.
Villagio was extremely poorly planned and run. I noticed the lack of fire safety previously as well, as well the as the padlocked fire exit gate.
Now why would a fire exit be padlocked is beyond me.
As long as the owners of such places are allowed to get through with it, it will happen. The supervision of the ministry is what lacks. They have a law of non-smoking in malls, they have a traffic law, they have all kinds of laws, all on paper, not in the hearts and minds, and not implemented by the government. So, who's to blame?