Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier, Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Civil Defense Council, has approved the Civil Defense plan for the holy month of Ramadan and the Directorate General of Civil Defense has completed all preparations for implementing it. Lt. Gen. Saad Bin Abdullah Al-Twaijri, Director General of Civil Defense, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that his crew has completed all arrangements to begin implementing the plan for Ramadan in Makkah, with 9,600 officers and privates, including safety patrols on vehicles and on foot; field teams; preventive-survey teams; monitoring, medical-evacuation and rapid-intervention teams; and the Al-Haram force. These groups comprise the Civil Defense Administration in Makkah and the Directorate of Civil Defense in Makkah region, which are supported by 1,440 vehicles, five helicopters and 1,000 paramedics distributed at 33 points in and outside the Grand Mosque, Gen. Al-Twaijri added. He pointed out that officials have already conducted inspection tours and taken action against 300 sites where serious safety violations were found. Gen. Al-Twaijri described the details of the plan that has three themes. The first theme is analytical and concerned with the statistics and lessons learnt from last year's Ramadan season in field requirements and monitoring. This information was computerized and analyzed to establish a final vision, he said. Probable hazards in the light of changes that were introduced were observed and efforts were focused on mitigating their impact, Gen. Al-Twaijri said. Preparatory meetings were held with authorities involved in executing the Civil Defense measures for Ramadan, according to each authority's specialty and responsibility, he added. The second theme focuses on the preventive aspect; modern technology is used to respond to reports received by the operations room and ensure they are dealt with swiftly, and make use of advancements in global-positioning-system technology, Gen. Al-Twaijri said. The third theme focuses on work in the field; officials divided Makkah into nine areas in which manpower and equipment have been distributed, based on populations and housing densities, he added. General Al-Twaijri said that as part of the preparation efforts, Civil Defense teams carried out inspection tours of hotels, housing units and other facilities, and that electricity has been cut off from 160 sites and orders have been issued to vacate 122 warehouses. __
