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21 April 2023
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Dubai apartment block fire kills 16, injuring nine, United Arab Emirates
A fire in a residential building in Dubai killed 16 people and injured nine others in the wealthy Gulf emirate, the government said Sunday. The fire broke out at midday Saturday, 15 April 2023, on the fourth floor of the building in the Al-Ras neighbourhood in the old part of the city. Dubai Civil Defence teams arrived at the site of the fire and started both evacuation and fire fighting operations within six minutes of being notified.
“The Dubai Civil Defence Operations Room was first notified about the fire at 12h35pm on Saturday. A team from the Dubai Civil Defence headquarters, the first responder, arrived at the site of the accident at 12h41pm, within six minutes of the notification. Teams from the Port Saeed Fire Station and the Hamriyah Fire Station provided backup to the fire fighting operations. The fire was brought under control at 14h42 after which the cooling operations were started.”
The large-sized fire broke out in an apartment located on the fourth floor of the residential building. The site has been transferred to concerned authorities for further procedures. Naseer Vatanappally, a Dubai-based businessman who volunteers with the Indian Consulate on repatriation issues, said that authorities had identified the dead as six Sudanese, four Indians, three Pakistanis, a Cameroonian, an Egyptian and a Jordanian. He said police were working to process paperwork to send the remains of the dead back to their homelands.
The Civil Defence Force said preliminary investigations showed the fire was caused by a "lack of compliance with building security and safety requirements", the government's media office said in a statement.
Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates, has a population of around 3,3 million, of whom almost 90 percent are foreigners.
The city has experienced spectacular fires in the past, causing extensive damage but few casualties. In 2017, the authorities announced the adoption of stricter building regulations to minimise the risk of fire, attributed mainly to flammable materials used in the exterior cladding of buildings.
Sources: The Associated Press, Gulf News
“The Dubai Civil Defence Operations Room was first notified about the fire at 12h35pm on Saturday. A team from the Dubai Civil Defence headquarters, the first responder, arrived at the site of the accident at 12h41pm, within six minutes of the notification. Teams from the Port Saeed Fire Station and the Hamriyah Fire Station provided backup to the fire fighting operations. The fire was brought under control at 14h42 after which the cooling operations were started.”
The large-sized fire broke out in an apartment located on the fourth floor of the residential building. The site has been transferred to concerned authorities for further procedures. Naseer Vatanappally, a Dubai-based businessman who volunteers with the Indian Consulate on repatriation issues, said that authorities had identified the dead as six Sudanese, four Indians, three Pakistanis, a Cameroonian, an Egyptian and a Jordanian. He said police were working to process paperwork to send the remains of the dead back to their homelands.
The Civil Defence Force said preliminary investigations showed the fire was caused by a "lack of compliance with building security and safety requirements", the government's media office said in a statement.
Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates, has a population of around 3,3 million, of whom almost 90 percent are foreigners.
The city has experienced spectacular fires in the past, causing extensive damage but few casualties. In 2017, the authorities announced the adoption of stricter building regulations to minimise the risk of fire, attributed mainly to flammable materials used in the exterior cladding of buildings.
Sources: The Associated Press, Gulf News
