Three men were being questioned by police yesterday following a fire at a Dubai labour camp in which two labourers died. Suresh Kumar, 31, and Venugopal Gopalkrishnan, 23, perished in the blaze which tore through the camp in the Ghusais-Sonapur area in the early hours of Tuesday.

Both men, who worked for Al Abbar Aluminium, had been asleep in bunk beds in the room they shared at the company's 250-man camp when the fire broke out.

An eyewitness from a neighbouring camp said, "I couldn't sleep and was taking a walk when I saw smoke. I ran over to the gate and saw flames coming from the makeshift plywood kitchen area behind the sleeping quarters.

One labourer who lost all his belongings in the fire said panic spread through the camp when people suddenly began shouting "Fire!". "We ran outside and headed for the fire hose to keep the blaze under control until the fire brigade arrived - but no water came out," he said.

"The fire engines arrived soon after and we were asked to check if anyone was missing. We ran a check and found that Suresh and Venugopal were not among us. They had been trapped in their room where the fire did the most damage."

A man who assisted firefighters in removing the bodies said, "They were found one above the other and were completely charred." Kuttan Kumar, whose younger brother was one of the two men who died, said, "I met him at his camp residence just a day earlier. I can't believe this has happened.

"I have broken the news at home in India through a friend who lives nearby. I did not have the courage to convey it to my mother. Suresh was the sixth among 10 children and was very close to my mother.

"We had plans to get him married when he returned home soon on vacation. My mother was on the lookout for a suitable girl for him." Kuttan, who works in Sharjah, said he has yet to receive police permission to see his brother's body.

"I have been asked to wait until the post mortem is done. I would like to see the body so that arrangements can be made to take it to India as soon as possible. If the body is not in a condition to be taken home, we have no other choice but to do the cremation here."

Six of the camp's 52 rooms - which house six labourers each - were gutted in the fire and 38 people lost all their belongings, including Christmas and Eid gifts bought for their families.

One man said, "I planned to go on vacation and have lost all that I purchased for my family." A Civil Defence spokesman said the blaze broke out in a kitchen close to the camp's sleeping quarters and was caused by a leaking cooking gas cylinder.

Police and fire officials are investigating to discover if the fire was started deliberately and three camp residents were being questioned yesterday. Khalid Al Abbar, Al Abbar Aluminium project manager, said the company was also conducting its own internal investigation.

"The nature of the incident raises doubts that it may have been done deliberately," he said. "But, as far as we know, there have been no arrests made by the police. We have now shifted all our workers to another camp in the same area."

Meanwhile, a huge fire broke out on Tuesday night at a labour camp situated inside a garage belonging to the Khor Fakkan branch of Sharjah Municipality, but no injuries or deaths were reported.

Beds, clothes and wardrobes belonging to 55 municipal labourers were reduced to ashes, a report said yesterday. Eight water tankers and more than 60 firefighters from Fujairah and Khor Fakkan fought the fire for three and a half hours before it was put out.

A preliminary police inspection suggested that an electric stove may have caused the fire. The labourers could not pinpoint the man who had last been using the stove, but the police were able to narrow the number to three workers.

Elsewhere, residents of Golden Sands 10, a hotel-apartment complex in Dubai, were evacuated yesterday when a fire broke out in the building. Firefighters spent an hour at the scene of the fire, which broke out at 2.15pm on the fourth floor of the seven-floor building. No one was injured.

The source of the blaze was a three-bedroom apartment rented by a middle-aged Arab woman. Civil Defence officials declined to comment on the cause of the fire until the investigation has been completed. However, it is believed it started after a pan containing cooking oil was left on a lighted stove.

Residents in the building complained about a delay in sounding the fire alarm and claimed staff appeared not to know what they were doing. "No one heard the fire alarm until some time later," said one An American resident on the fourth floor. "The staff did not know what to do. They were opening all the fire doors, and I was going after them closing them."

A British resident on the sixth floor confirmed that there had been a delay in sounding the fire alarm. "The alarm sounded some time after the fire broke out and lasted only a few seconds," he said. A spokesman for the operators of Golden Sands 10 said last night he was too busy to comment.