Dubai: A kitchen geyser crashed through the false ceiling of a villa at the Springs development on Sunday narrowly missing a baby and a cook employed by the family that has rented the place.
"God saved us," said Ahmad Mustafa, the cook, pointing to the spot where he had been when the 15-kilo geyser tore through the ceiling as he was busy preparing food for the family. Little Reem was sitting in the maid's lap inches from where the debris fell.
The kitchen geyser usually holds about 30 litres of water and would have caused serious injuries had it hit the cook. As it turned out, it did not fall to the ground but was left dangling from a wire inches off the kitchen floor.
Imran Kazmi, who took Villa 5 in Springs 3 on rent in February this year, recalled hearing a noise that almost seemed like a blast. "It felt like an explosion," he said.
When he complained to the developer's customer service, he was told that ‘warranty' of the villa had passed and that there was nothing the developers could do about the damage.
Assurance about repairs
"What is this, is this a car," Kazmi claims to have asked the company's customer service staff, but he was not given any assurance about either repairs being carried out or the accident being investigated.
Kazmi showed Gulf News the gaping hole left in the kitchen ceiling and an air-conditioning unit perched precariously close to it.
"There's no support underneath it," he said, adding that he is now worried about other sections where the ceiling might be suspect such as the living room where there are air-conditioners stowed away on a seemingly flimsy support structure.
The expatriate pointed to apparently shoddy construction work, complaining that the bathroom sink had fallen four times since his family moved in. "The bathroom door handle is also not fitted properly and it could lock my mother in," he claimed.
Kazmi said his wife had recently expressed the desire to replace the two chandeliers in the living room but they abandoned the idea on noticing that the plaster near the wire was coming off.
