The tragedy of the Doha mall fire should give every GCC country, where these shopping centers are so common, pause for serious thought. The Qatari government has launched an investigation which will surely make clear how 19 people, including 13 children trapped in a first floor nursery, came to lose their lives, mostly it seems through smoke inhalation. Nevertheless, some details already seem to be clear and they paint a catalog of faults and errors which combined caused this disaster. The tone of the fire alarms was anything but urgent. People in the Villaggio Mall said that they wondered if the noise they heard was perhaps a security alarm. The apparently low-key and disorganized reaction of the mall staff and management, added to the impression that this was not a serious incident. Police and civil defense teams were on the scene quickly but it has been reported that there was no accurate floor plan with which they could work to clear the mall and in particular reach the nursery where the children were trapped. Two brave civil defense members died as they tried to reach the nursery. Incredibly, a staircase up to the first floor collapsed. The firefighters therefore had to break their way through the roof to get to the young people. If there was a system for venting the building of the thick smoke that quickly built up, it either was not activated or did not work. The first impression is that there was minimal planning for dealing with a fire on this scale, both by the operators of the mall and by the police and civil defense. It ought to be axiomatic that not only are such premises inspected regularly to ensure that they comply with all fire and safety regulations, but also that firefighters should conduct proper exercises, so that they have a clear plan of how to deal with a blaze. If it is true that there was no floor plan of the mall immediately available, or indeed held by the civil defense teams themselves, then this is an extremely serious failure. Malls are a very pleasant way to go shopping, meet friends, have a coffee or a meal and relax in a temperature-controlled and interesting environment - the Villaggio Mall has a Venetian theme. Visitors have a right to feel secure in these places. Now quite understandably, customers will start to ask questions of their favorite local malls, here in the Kingdom. Could such a tragedy happen here? Mall owners will say of course not. Unfortunately, after the Doha tragedy, that is not going to be good enough. All malls need to review their fire and safety systems and the integrity of key elements such as staircases, have them independently assessed and audited and then publish the results for everyone to see. Of equal importance, we must ensure that our firemen have plans ready to tackle a blaze in all major public places, such as malls. We must not have a Villaggio tragedy here. __
