Dubai: Three people, including an elderly woman and a child, were rescued from a burning villa on Friday night in a swift intervention by paramedics from the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services (DCAS).
The victims suffered only minor injuries, while five others managed to escape the blaze unhurt before emergency personnel arrived on the scene, officials said on Tuesday.
The villa belonging to an Emirati family in Al Manar area was up in blaze when two paramedics reached the spot first. The paramedics saved the three victims trapped inside the villa before Dubai Civil Defence arrived and brought the fire under control.
“There were a lot of screams and cries when we reached and found five family members were in the yard. We got to know that there were more people inside the villa who couldn’t escape because of the heavy smoke and fire,” recalled Jalal Abadi, the ambulance driver who rescued a seven-year-old girl from the villa.
“We couldn’t wait until the Civil Defence arrived. Myself and Nasser Al Marzouqi [a paramedic] had to get in immediately. The family’s nanny was trapped in the balcony and was calling for help,” he told Gulf News.
Abadi said an incense burner was the reason for the fire, spewing flame and smoke in different parts of the villa.
Al Marzouqi said he had to reach out to the nanny stuck in the balcony of a room where the fire had started, while Abadi saved the child. “I carried the nanny outside and then the family told us an elderly woman was still inside the majlis area and could not move. I had to enter the villa again and get her out. If we had waited a few more seconds, she could have suffocated,” he said.
The paramedics had called for more backup to treat the three victims for smoke inhalation and minor wounds before they were transferred to Rashid Hospital.
The risk taken by the DCAS personnel was an act of conscience to save the lives of the three house members, Abadi and Al Marzooqi were quoted as saying.
“We reached the site before the Civil Defence because it was closer to us and we couldn’t just stand there and watch three people calling for our help without doing anything. A minute makes a huge difference in someone’s life,” said Abadi.
Dubai Civil Defence has recently warned the public about fires spreading from using ovens and incense burners during Ramadan, both of which have been the top reasons of fires during this period.
According to official statistics, Dubai Civil Defence recorded 15 fires during Ramadan in 2016 as compared to 20 fires in the holy month in 2015. During Ramadan in 2014, there were 27 fires. Most of the fires were minor ones.
