Dubai: In an act of sheer bravado, two cross-border bankers turned heroes by pulling three children to safety from a burning Bur Dubai building earlier this week.
Shahzad Amjad, 38, from Pakistan and Amit Fernandes, 36, from India, were at work at the ADCB branch on Khalid Bin Al Waleed Road when the six storey building next to their office caught fire Monday afternoon.
According to eye-witnesses, the fire broke out on the fifth floor of the residential unit between 2.30 and 3pm with dense smoke billowing out from an apartment. In the ensuing melee, a scary sight caught Amjad’s attention - a woman precariously dangling a baby out of a window covered in thick plumes of smoke. “She looked panic-stricken and I feared she could drop the infant anytime. By this time a huge crowd had gathered in front of the building and the onlookers were trying to calm her down. Time was running out and my only instinct was to rush to the apartment,” recalled the father of two.
“It was pitch-dark and the smoke made it difficult for us to breathe but we sprinted up the stairs using our cellphone lights knowing that even a moment’s delay could mean the difference between life and death,” said Fernandes. “As we reached the fifth floor, we were completely exhausted but we were lucky to find the apartment in quick time. The door was ajar and as we stepped in, we found two women and three kids all visibly shaken and weak due to smoke inhalation.”
However, a bigger challenge awaited the bankers – communication gap. “The women appeared to be from the Far East and didn’t speak proper English. So it was difficult convincing them to get out of the apartment. Thankfully, better sense prevailed over them and they allowed us to carry the kids and escort them to safety,” said Amjad.
Meanwhile, firefighters also arrived at the scene, evacuating the building and preventing the fire from extending to other flats. “The blaze was finally brought under control around 3.45pm,” said Javed Sayed, an eyewitness and a colleague of the bankers.
“What these guys did was truly amazing,” he said.
Fernandes along with a few other residents of the building were later treated by paramedics for smoke inhalation.
