(MENAFN- Arab News) Many factories and workshops in the Kingdom do not abide by safety and security standards to protect their buildings against fires. Such factories also do not maintain their air conditioning networks and electricity cables. These violations have led to a number of fire accidents in recent weeks according to building safety and security experts.

Gen. Saeed Sarhan Civil Defense spokesman in Makkah said all buildings housing factories must apply safety standards to avoid fire incidents.

Most of these incidents have resulted from the neglect in the maintenance of air conditioning system and failing to make regular checks on the electricity systems.

Speaking to Arab News he said: 'Civil Defense firefighting teams contained two instances of fire which broke out in factories last month in Jeddah's industrial city. Fire accidents in Jeddah came down by 90 percent last year owing to the Civil Defense monitoring and implementing safety measures in factories warehouses and shops' he added.

Several workshops and small factories located in the south and east of Jeddah ignore safety standards posing a threat to neighborhoods. At the same time most of these workshops are reported to be hiring foreign workers who are not on their sponsorship.

A number of workers at workshops located in the south of Jeddah refused to allow Arab News to visit their workplaces. However several residents living around them said incidents fire were reported in these workshops in the past.

'We have asked government agencies to move the workshops from our area especially as they operate without any regard to safety standards. Also factory inspectors do not visit them' Abu Khaled a Saudi resident told Arab News.

The Jeddah municipality had previously stated that workshops inside the city would be shifted to the Usfan district. But the municipality is reportedly encountering problems related to land in that area.

Saudi Arabia has confirmed its determination to build an energy system based on the latest technologies available that have been tried and tested in terms of environmental safety and security standards.

In 2012 Hashim Yamani president of King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A.CARE) estimated the total cost of the program at $140 billion by 2030. He said 60 percent of the atomic industry would be nationalized in due course. Similarly he added planning for 80 percent of the renewable energy industry in the Kingdom is based on technical and economic studies prepared by the city.