DOHA: Customers and staff at the Hyatt Plaza were evacuated last evening after a fire alarm went off at the shopping mall.
It was later found as a false alarm triggered by some technical malfunction, although fire fighters and rescue workers immediately arrived at the location since the mall’s alarm system is directly connected to the Civil Defence.
“Technical malfunction causes fire alarm by mistake at Hyatt Plaza, authorities were called and Jungle Zone evacuated as a precaution,” Ministry of Interior said in social media.
According to the Hyatt Plaza management a technical malfunction in their air conditioning unit has caused the fire alarm, since it has sensor fixed and directly connected to the Civil Defence.
“The incident occurred few minutes after 5pm. Our alarm system is directly linked to the Civil Defence and they immediately responded,” Feroz Moideen, Hyatt Plaza’s General Manager told The Peninsula.
“However within minutes we found it’s a false alarm and informed the staff through our pager system,” he added.
Sixty to 70 percent of the Hyatt Plaza is occupied by shops, restaurants and play area. Following the Villaggio Mall tragedy, Hyatt Plaza did an independent safety and security auditing to identify the loopholes in its emergency preparedness.
It tied up with Velosi, an international agency specialising in quality control and certification to conduct the auditing. Hyatt Plaza also did set up a Management and Tenants Safety and Security Steering Committee to play the role of a self-regulatory body.
Its evacuation plan was placed on the corridor in a prominent way. It also distributed leaflets containing the floor plan to the customers.
