UAE | Crime
Blaze survivors seek belongings amid wreckage
Hundreds of survivors of the Naif townhouse blaze that claimed 11 lives queued outside the building on Friday waiting for permission from the police to look for their belongings.
- By Wafa Issa, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:53 August 29, 2008
- Hundreds of survivors of the Naif townhouse blaze that claimed 11 lives queued outside the building on Friday waiting for permission from the police to look for their belongings.
- Image Credit: Vazhisojan/Gulf News
Dubai: Hundreds of survivors of the Naif townhouse blaze that claimed 11 lives queued outside the building on Friday waiting for permission from the police to look for their belongings.
Tuesday's fire made hundreds of workers mainly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh homeless. Many of those workers gathered outside the building to search for belongings in what used to be their home.
Couple of hours
Police had informed the workers through Naif Police Station that they would allow people to enter the building for a couple of hours on Friday afternoon.
Bachelors stood among the remains of charred wood, washing machines, stoves and mobile phones. Police let in five people at a time to take whatever the fire had spared.
"We cannot let everybody in at the same time as we need to ensure that the right items go to the right people so this is why we are asking for identification documents and noting down what people are taking carefully," said a policeman at the site.
Workers were taking every thing they could find including salt and pots with food which had been lying around since Tuesday, others were luckier as their televisions and fans had survived.
Two half-full buckets of water were lying beside one of the taps located in the middle of the first floor, a reminder that the fire that broke out in the early morning interrupted some during their morning bathing.
In each of the many small rooms which were separated by partitions were the remains of more than ten beds indicating the overcrowded conditions.
The remains of shoes, work overalls, pots, mobile phones, CDs and half burnt family pictures were scattered everywhere.
"I know that we lived in bad conditions but it was at least a roof over our heads. Now many of us are forced to sleep in parks and other sheltered places," said one of the workers.
Share this article
Related Articles
-
Naif fire fails to char wedding dream
Naif fire fails to char survivor's wedding dream
-
Workers pick up fragments of their gutted lives
Workers pick up fragments of their gutted lives
-
Naif fire survivors face uphill battle
Naif villa fire survivors face uphill battle
-
42 affected by fire given refuge
Workers affected by fire given refuge by Indian consulate
Popular in UAE
-
Your pictures
Readers' pictures
A Selection of the best Gulf News reader pictures this week
Latest news
- Safe ways of handling medical waste discussed
- Emirati students to be chosen for German internship
- Public urged to ensure food safety
- Residency section clears 6,000 cases
- Residents opt for other gifts as gold soars
- UAE residents spend hours trying to cross into Oman
- Traditional theme at Etihad celebrations
- Dubai in for breezy conditions
- The true meaning of festival of sacrifice
- Maguindanao massacre victims remembered
- School buses must do safe drop-offs
- Rulers exchange Eid greetings
- Plan to make you reach for the book
- The last strand could count in time
- Mohammad endorses Watani campaign
