The Pearl Qatar Fire, Fire Safety and Other Thoughts

Several days after the Villagio fire incident, there's another fire in Qatar, this time a construction site at The Pearl. It turned out that the emergency response is very good this time there are no people casualty. I'm just not sure about the property damage.

Here's the news from Gulf Times: 39 Workers Rescued From Blaze At The Pearl 

Photo from Doha News

That's two fire incidents in a week or so. It's more than a sign to be conscious of fire safety. It's really really scary for the kids.


My 6-year old is now conscious of the fire, fire exits and fire evacuations, thanks to her school who practiced evacuation drill right after the Villagio fire incident. Her teacher also did a very good job of explaining to her what happened in the Villagio. I couldn't have explained to her the incident. I was trying to avoid the discussion with her but she's always smarter than I think she is.

But there's more to things to teach the kids about fire safety, fire prevention and emergency preparedness and response!

It's a big shame from my side as I used to be an HSE Engineer in my previous life. I used to conduct courses in fire safety in buildings and manufacturing sites ages ago. Right now,  being in Doha for more than five years, made me so rusty with basic health and safety concept. I have visited Gympanzee several times to inquire about birthday party for my kids; even attended a birthday party with our eldest's classmates. Not once did I think that the place is high risk for fire! Thank God for my husband who never liked the zigzag/ maze path going to Gympanzee. He thinks it's too scary for kids to be contained in such place. With the recent event, I would always listen to my husband's opinions. He does make sense most of the time. Most of the time, my mind is clouded with exaggerated thoughts that "kids would love this", "kids would learn from this" and so on. I tend not to be logical.

What we have to do now is to learn  from these incidents and I have to use my previous knowledge to teach the kids about fire safety. And we have to do it ASAP.

First things first, since I am better with kids as we are such book worms, we are hoping to get hold of any of these books about teaching fire safety for kids.






More to come on fire safety especially for kids.

Stay safe!