53.1 thousand cameras and 38 “drones” for the first time in securing New Year’s celebrations in Dubai

The day before yesterday, thousands of military and civilian cadres affiliated with the Events Security Committee worked around the clock to secure dazzling New Year’s celebrations that the Emirate of Dubai witnessed for the first time in 40 major locations.

For the first time, the Events Security Committee used 38 drones to cover the celebration areas, compared to only eight drones in last year’s celebrations, and strengthened the operations rooms that followed all the sites with an immediate and live broadcast from 53,199 surveillance cameras, distributed with high professionalism in all the sites, to transmit the image to seven central command rooms, including the “Downtown” Burj Khalifa operations center.

The Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, told Emirates Today that Dubai may be the only city in the world that witnesses 40 major sites for celebrating New Year’s, which reflects the confidence of the local community and the emirate’s pioneers from various countries of the world, pointing out that 55 government and private agencies work under the umbrella of the Events Security Committee to bring out the celebrations in the best possible way, whether in terms of security or organization.

He added that the committee’s work teams from various departments have become very professional in dealing with major events, and are now reinforced with an advanced technical system. He pointed to the expansion of the use of “drones” thanks to the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center and the “drone box” system it contains, and its role in enhancing performance by ensuring speedy access to accident sites, and providing the command and control center with information and data that would support reducing response time.

Al Marri stressed that planning for major events, such as New Year’s celebrations, is being carried out early by the committee, which is exploiting all the capabilities available to 55 government and private partners in harmony, which has made it possible to organize this number of celebrations after they were limited a few years ago to the Burj Khalifa area only.

In turn, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Civil Defense in Dubai, Major General Jamal bin Adid Al Muhairi, told Emirates Today from the site of the New Year’s celebrations in downtown Burj Khalifa, that the defense men were deployed in a deliberate manner at various points in all areas of the events, and they also early assumed the task of supervising the safety of fireworks, pointing to the participation of more than 1,754 firefighters, including officers, non-commissioned officers and individuals, and more than 156 modern mechanisms with a variety of specialties were equipped, including 12 marine fire boats.

Al Muhairi added that the Civil Defense is using a flexible mobile operations room in the Burj Khalifa area, through which events can be followed and transformed into a live broadcast unit in the event of an emergency, as it is connected to the central operations room in the General Command of the Civil Defense, which contributes to providing the necessary information and data for decision-making.

He stressed that the organization of the events witnessed by the Emirate of Dubai was wonderful by all standards, and this was reflected in the level of satisfaction and happiness of the goers of the celebration areas from different countries.

In turn, the Executive Director of the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services, Mishal Abdul Karim Julfar, said that New Year’s celebrations in Dubai have become a special event in which we are all keen to perform our roles in an integrated manner, under the umbrella of the Events Insurance Committee in partnership with the Dubai Health Authority.

He added that the Foundation used field support buses during the Burj Khalifa activities, as it is the main and largest destination for visitors, pointing out that the buses are distinguished by their ability to receive a large number of injured people at the same time.

He pointed out that the Foundation also provided a telemedicine service during the events, through an emergency doctor present in the main operating room at the Foundation’s headquarters, who receives calls and provides emergency medical care by phone to people who do not need to go to the field hospital or be transported by ambulance.