Fujairah: Fujairah Police have urged residents to install smoke detectors in their homes, even as a full-fledged investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the fire in a Madhab villa that claimed the lives of two Emirati children on Monday.
Major General Mohammad Ahmad Bin Ghanem Al Kaabi, Commander-in-Chief of Fujairah Police, told Gulf News on Tuesday that the forensic laboratory at Fujairah Police is investigating the cause of the fire.
Although an electrical fault is suspected to be the cause of the fire, he said, “We cannot conclusively say what caused the fire at this stage, as we are waiting for the report.”
The forensic report is expected to be ready by Wednesday, he added.
Brigadier Ali Al Tunaiji, Director General of Fujairah Civil Defence, told Gulf News that the issue of fire safety is among the top priorities of the UAE government which has put in place laws and regulations to combat the problem.
Hassantuk
Referring to the installation of Hassantuk, a centralised fire alarm receiving system that can get alerts from various premises, he said 80 such smart devices had been installed so far in Fujairah. All the devices were linked to the Civil Defence operation room.
Brigadier Al Tunaiji urged all house owners to install smoke detectors as they were essential in dealing with such tragedies. He also urged them to monitor electric appliances and power connections and cautioned against the running of ACs continuously during summer.
On Monday, three-year-old Hour and Fahd, four, died in their grandmother’s house in Madhab after their room caught fire. Their parents had left them in the house on their way to work.
The siblings, it is believed, died of smoke inhalation.
A family member told Gulf News that the children were inside the room when the fire broke out and they were heard screaming and calling for help. An aunt discovered the incident after she went out of her room to find out what happened to the kids.
She tried to open the door but it was locked from the inside.
The grandmother then went out seeking for help from neighbours who, in turn, called the police operations room.
When the rescue team arrived, they broke the door locks and found the two kids under the bed — but they were motionless.
