Swift action by the Civil Defence personnel put out the fire in the Lootah building in Dubai. ©Gulf News |
No casualties have been reported in the building, which has two blocks, also known as the Toyota building.
The fire quickly spread upwards to some of the units on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the building's Block B.
An estimated 1,000 people live in the 15-storey buildings which contain more than 300 units.
Police received the distress call at 6.25 pm and fire fighters rushed to the scene in six minutes.
A number of special firefighting trucks rush to the scene of fire carrying equipment that allowed rescuers to go inside the building. Firemen put out the flames in under 15 minutes according to witnesses. Residents on the third to sixth floors were evacuated.
Mohammed, a resident of the building's Block B complained that the fire alarm did not ring, which seemed to indicate that it is no longer working.
Abdullah, another resident in the building, said: "Apparently there was no one in the flat when the fire broke out."
Police are still investigating the cause and are looking for an electrical short circuit or any gas cylinders that could have caused the accident.
First Lieutenant Yousef Rashid, the head of the Satwa Fire Department, said: "We are still trying to establish the cause of the fire."
Other residents also said that it could have been an electrical short circuit or a faulty gas cylinder.
A Civil Defence official told Gulf News: "We suspect that the cause of the fire was an electrical short circuit that could have started in one of the bedrooms."
