Right: The burnt facade of the building. Some expatriate families have lost their life savings in the fire. Image Credit: Mahdi Shirazi/Gulf News reader and Javed Nawab/Gulf News
Sharjah: Aid workers swung into action on Wednesday to help clothe, feed and house 125 families left homeless after fire ravaged a 25-storey residential high-rise early on Wednesday.
Civil Defence teams from Sharjah, Dubai, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain responded to a 2:15 am distress call at Al Baker Tower 4 as flames rose high into the night sky over Al Taawun area until around 5.15 am.
At the scene of the blaze, Saleh Al Shuwaihi, manager of emergency aid for Sharjah Charity, told Gulf News yesterday that more than two dozen volunteers assisted victims and have logged names to follow up cases.
"We're helping them find flats for one or two days and we're giving them financial assistance ranging from Dh1,000 to Dh2,000 depending on the size of the family," he said.
Coordinated response
Sharjah Club and the UAE Red Crescent were also on site to provide a coordinated response for homeless tenants. The gutted two-year-old building they used to call home is owned by a Qatari businessman.
Exhausted victims were grateful no one died in the blaze, especially given many accounts at the scene yesterday that there were no fire alarm alerts and that the building had no water sprinklers.
Ahmad Yacoub, 37, said he is planning to file a formal complaint with authorities after the blaze caused as much as Dh60,000 in damage to his flat — 1505. "We have to buy everything, all of our furniture and clothing is gone," he told Gulf News at the scene.
Sleepy-eyed Ifeanyi Dove fled flat No 805 clutching his infant son in his arms while explosions rocked the building. "I am homeless and I lost everything, except for this dishdasha that I am wearing," said Dove whose wife was travelling at the time of the fire. "I lost my life's savings."
Brigadier General Abdullah Saeed Al Suwaidi, director-general of Civil Defence in Sharjah, said: "The weather and wind speed were factors that caused the fire to spread quickly to the other floors in the building, as well as the materials used in the building's exterior that were flammable."
Derek Baldwin is a chief reporter and Mariam M. Al Serkal is a staff reporter of Gulf News
