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Fatwa CenterPutting out a fire takes precedence over performing prayer
Question
We work in an oilfield where there is an emergency system and a fire alarm. Whenever the alarm is heard, some procedures are immediately made and each employee should be in a certain place and has a certain role to perform. However, most times there is no real danger. It happened that once we heard the alarm while performing the prayer, and we did not know what to do, especially since the Imaam was most certain that the alarm was not for an actual danger. What should we do if this incident reoccurs in the future?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
As a basic rule, the one who already started his prayer is prohibited to end it whenever he wills. However, it is permissible to end the prayer for a necessity such as saving an inviolable soul from destruction or harm or keeping wealth from being lost. Furthermore, it is even obligatory to do so in some cases, like that of rescuing a person in a calamity or one who is drowning, putting out a fire, or saving a child or a blind person from falling into a well or a fire.
Al-‘Izz ibn ‘Abd As-Salam 
said:
"A rule on setting a balance between potential interests and harms…the eighth example: saving a person, whose soul is inviolable under the Sharee'ah, from drowning takes precedence over offering prayer because it is better in the Sight of Allaah than performing prayer. A person may realize both interests by saving the person from drowning first and then making up the prayer after that. It is obvious that the interest he misses by not performing the prayer in its due time is considerably less than that of saving a Muslim from death."
Al-Buhooti, the Hanbali scholar also said about this case:
"It is obligatory to save a disbeliever whose blood is protected by virtue of a covenant, a truce, or a security pact, from falling into a well or from any similar danger such as being bitten by a snake, just like the Muslim who enjoys full inviolability in the Sharee'ah. Similarly, it is obligatory to save a person from drowning or from a fire, in which case he has to end his prayer, whether it is an obligatory or a voluntary one, even if its time is about to lapse; because it could be made up later, unlike the case of saving one who is drowning. If a person refuses to end his prayer to save a drowning person or the like, he is held sinful but his prayer is still valid."
Based on this, if the alarm functions as a notification of danger, then the employees have to end the prayer and rush to their specified places. In principle, the alarm signal indicates the occurrence of a trouble to which you should respond properly. However, if nothing actually occurs, then there is no blame on you.
Allaah Knows best.
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