Fire hits car park under construction

Dubai: A fire broke out in a car park under construction on Shaikh Zayed Road yesterday morning, originating from a makeshift canteen on the site, according to officials and workers.

Thick plumes of smoke were seen coming from the multi-storey Damas Towers car park at around 11am, but the fire was quickly brought under control. According to Dubai Civil Defence officials, the fire broke out in a wooden container used as a canteen by labourers, on the ground floor of the building, with no injuries reported.

However, workers on the site said the fire started in a canteen on the third floor and paramedics on the scene said three workers with minor injuries were taken to Rashid Hospital, suffering from smoke inhalation. One worker fell when trying to escape the burning building, paramedics said.

Teams from Al Satwa Fire Station quickly extinguished the fire, preventing it from spreading to floors above, which contained flammable materials including paint, plastic and wood.

With heavy smoke billowing from the car park, rescue workers were forced to break down boarding surrounding the site to allow workers to escape the building. Others were also seen climbing down wires hanging from the outside of the twelve-storey building.

"I was inside when the fire started on the third floor in the canteen, where some people were making tea. I was on the first floor, and escaped as soon as I smelt the smoke," said Shuman, a Bangladeshi worker.

Smoke

According to an engineer from the main Damas Towers site, there were only around 20 workers in the building at the time, with an additional 150 workers on the main site. "We saw the smoke and were moved out of the Damas Towers as well," Mohammad Ali said, adding that the workers in the car park were painting the building. One Egyptian labourer who was working on the fourth floor, said he realised what was happening when he saw the smoke, immediately notifying his colleagues.

"We were really worried when we couldn't find one of our friends. His mobile phone was off and it was impossible to reach him, but we eventually saw him outside," he said, praising police officials for "arriving on the scene immediately".

This is the second such incident on Shaikh Zayed Road in a week. Last Wednesday, another fire broke out on the roof of an under-construction building, also resulting in two minor injuries.

- With additional inputs from Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporter

Blaze breaks out on truck

In another incident, firefighting teams put out a minor fire that had broken out on a truck in Festival City. Civil Defence's operations room received reports of the fire at 12:15pm. When the firefighting teams arrived to Al Rebat Road in front of Ikea in the Festival City, it turned out to be a minor fire, and was immediately extinguished. The truck driver managed to unload the burning material, preventing the truck from catching fire.