Dubai: As firefighters crashed through her bedroom at 2am, while the fire ate away at the Address Downtown Hotel on New Year ’s Eve, they found her sound asleep, unaware of the commotion.
“The fire was raging for some four hours by then. [The lady] was in another world unaware of the fire, the alarms and the explosions going off on the other side of the building,” said Sergeant Sami Jasem Mubarak, recalling that fateful evening.
His colleagues helped evacuate the woman safely out of her apartment and the building. “She threw on some [extra] clothes on her and they helped her down to the lobby,” Sergeant Mubarak informed.
This particular incident led the firefighting officers to crash through every door to ensure that there was no one else stuck in any apartment, who was similarly unaware of what was happening.
The heroic Dubai Civil Defence firefighters who did an exemplary job on the night of December 31 recounted their experiences of putting out the fire at the Address Downtown that broke out just a few hours before the New Year fireworks display was to begin and how they rescued the people inside the building.
Sergeant Mubarak said that initially, he was not positioned at The Address, Downtown, when the fire began. “I got there by 11.30pm. First, I was in the lobby helping with the evacuation process and helping my collleagues. When we were sure that there was no one left to evacuate [in the lobby], I went up to help with the firefighting efforts. The elevators were out so I had to go up the stairs.”
Sgt. Mubarak was also there on the following day to help with the cool down, and on the days after to escort people to their apartments so they coukd retrive or salvage their belongings.
“There was no functioning elevator, so we had to use the stairs. Some of the people were able to climb up the floors along with us and some could not, so for the latter, we had to get down their things for them.”
But even with the people who braved the climb up the stairwell, Sgt Mubarak said they had to take a break every five minutes.
Rcealling the efforts of the many teams, Sgt Mubarak said, “Everyone gave their all on that day, whether it was the Civil Defence, Dubai Police, Ambulance Services and everyone. The most important thing was that there were no human losses,” he said.
The presence of Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his help gave them a huge morale boost, he said.
Mubarak has been working for Dubai Civil Defence for 16 years. “I was a firefighter for 11 years and then I moved to the investigation department after a back surgery. When the fire broke out, I could not stop myself from going. I still had my fire gear with me.”
As soon as he reached the spot, he felt his passion for his job surging back. “I am going back to working as a firefighter, and they even gave me a new fire suit,” he said.
Lieutenant Hamad Al Derbi, who was one of the officers on duty that evening, praised the public’s cooperation during the evacuation.
“Our top priority was getting everyone out safe. This fire was different than all the fires I have attended to because of the number of people who were in the building. Also, it was New Year’s Eve and there were many tourists and plenty of public. But all went well,” Lt. Al Derbi said.
After the evacuation, he was part of the teams that dispersed on different floors of The Address to put out the fire and bring it under control.
“All the teams did a great job. And when the Ruler’s son is on the scene and working with us hand in hand, you know that the UAE is at its best. His presence lifted our spirits and it showed how much the Rulers of this country care about and love their country,” he said.
The man on the 48th floor
Warrant Officer Hassan Abbas Al Beloushi, the officer who saved Dennis Borja Mallari, the photographer who was stranded on the 48th floor of The Address Hotel and whose story was widely reported by media around the world, said: “We acted as soon as we saw the fire, even before it was reported by the operation’s room. Lt. General Hussain Al Rahoumi was in charge of managing the teams, and he ordered us to go floor by floor evacuating the people,” he said.
Al Beloushi was one of the 5,000 personnel positioned in the area surrounding Burj Khalifa to ensure the New Year’s festivities run smoothly.
One of Al Beloushi’s teammates informed him that there was a man trapped somewhere on the 48th floor. “I was on the 33rd floor and my teammate was with a man who was talking to that trapped person, but they did not know which room he was in. I started scaling the stairs, breaking every few seconds so I do not exhaust my energy.” After he reached the 44th floor however, Al Beloushi did not take any more breaks.
When he got to the 48th floor, he was faced with a door that needed a security access card to open it, so he went up to the 49th floor, where he was told by one of his teammates that he could only access that floor from the other side.
“I made it to the other side and broke down the entrance door. The area before me was like a balcony and I saw some photography equipment, tripods and cameras lying there, but I did not see any person. I shouted in English, “Fire department call out” multiple times but no one answered. I looked towards the west and south of the place and saw no one. So I left and continued climbing up to the 53rd floor where I met three of my teammates who said there is no one left in the building,” Al Beloushi said.
But his gut was telling him something different. He decided to return to the 48th floor and give it one more try. This time, he and his teammates opened the secured door by breaking a small window on the side and pressing a button.
“I went back to the area where I found the equipment. This time, I heard something hitting the window [below]. I saw a man hanging by the kind of wire used by window cleaners and he was finding his feet on a small ledge. I tried to pull up the wire but the man screamed, ‘My belt, my belt!’. I realised that he had tied the wire to his belt and if I had tugged harder, he could have fallen, so I pulled him up by his belt.”
The man was Mallari and he was shaking.
To calm Mallari down and take his mind off what he had just endured, Al Beloushi started talking to him about photography. “I am a photography enthusiast, so I started praising his camera and told him about the cameras I had. He was in shock and I was trying to keep his mind off [what had just happened],”
Al Beloushi then gave his helmet to Mallari and picked up his photography equipment. “When we reached the ground floor, I dropped him off at the ambulance services and handed his bag to one of the people on site.”
Some time later, he found that the bag had been left behind and he decided to give it to Mallari in person.
“I called him two days back and told him I have his things. When I met him, I said, ‘It is good to see you in one piece’, and he laughed. I can’t imagine what could have happened if I had not had that gut feeling to go back and find him.
“I would not have forgiven myself,” Al Beloushi said.
