2 killed and 4 injured in Kuwait building fire
Al Farwaniya leads with 259 out of 1,476 fires in country in the first half of this year
Cairo: A blaze erupted in a residential building in Kuwait, killing two people and injuring four others.
The blaze broke out on the fifth floor of the building in Al Farwaniya, south of the capital Kuwait City.
The fire also damaged the interior of the apartment and the front of the building, Al Anba newspaper reported, citing a security source.
Fighters evacuated residents of the upper floors as an inquiry was launched to determine the cause of the blaze.
Al Farwaniya took the lead among Kuwaiti areas hit by a total of 1,476 fires in the first half of this year with 259, a firefighting official said.
Al Ahmadi governorate came second with 233 fires, Brig Mohammed Al Gharib, a spokesman for the Kuwait Fire Force, told Al Anba.
Last month, a blaze swept across a residential building in Mangaf area, south of Kuwait City, leaving 50 people dead in one of the worst such incidents in the country. The fatalities included 45 Indians and three Filipinos.
Fire Force investigators attributed the blaze to a short electric circuit, saying it started around dawn in the room of the building guard before it spread across the six-floor residence.
The high death toll was due to inflammable partitions separating apartments and rooms on the building as well as the closure of its rooftop, making it difficult for the residents to escape from the fire, according to chief of fire investigations Col. Sayyed Hassan.
The fire has prompted the Kuwaiti government to mount a relentless crackdown on violations of the building code across the country.