04 Sep Regional News
Sharjah
His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad al Qasimi, supreme council member and ruler of Sharjah has allocated 100 million dirhams for a project to reduce the risk of fires in towers and buildings in the city. The first phase of the project will cover 40 high-risk residential towers over seven floors high. The project aims to replace aluminium facades with safer materials to reduce the risk of fire and protect residents, properties, and the environment, aligning with the government’s priority to ensure building safety in Sharjah.
Oman
The cdaa in oman has issued a warning to residents after a number of people were hospitalised during several house fires. The most common reasons for these fires is people not closing the gas cylinder after cooking, or when leaving the house, children playing with matches, cigarette butts being discarded carelessly and using flammable building materials for interior decorations. They have advised that ensuring the safety and maintenance of electrical connections and gas installations, avoiding the use of grills and charcoal tools indoors, making sure electrical outlets are not overloaded and avoiding placing electrical cables over furniture and under carpets can help reduce the risk of fire in homes.
Turkey
An operating room fire broke out in the sultan Abdulhamid han training and research hospital in Uskudar district. According to the Istanbul governors office, 109 patients were transferred to nearby clinics, including 15 patients in intensive care. One of the patients died in the hospital as a result of the fire. Emergency responders were quickly dispatched to the scene, working to extinguish the blaze and contain the fire. The swift evacuation of patients was a critical aspect of the emergency response, ensuring the safety of patients, staff, and medical personnel.
Ajman
Residents of Tower 2 in the Ajman one complex in Ajman, UAE are staying in hotels after a fire swept up the skyscraper. The fire broke out at around midnight, and although crews worked swiftly to put the fire out, it damaged 64 apartments and 10 cars, but it was contained to only one side of the building. The director general of the police operations department at Ajman police said that the force sent a mobile emergency management service, in coordination with the emergency operations section, to talk to the building’s residents about damages. Other response crews are also working to ensure the safety of the site.
Umm Al Quwain
A perfume factory in Umm Al Quwain has been destroyed in the umm al thuoob industrial area. The building and surrounding area were evacuated, including 400 factory workers, all were removed with no injuries reported. Firefighters from four emirates joined forces to battle the flames, Sheikh Rashid bin Saud bin Rashid al Mualla, crown prince of Umm al Quwain, has hailed the efforts made by the Emirates civil defence teams who battled the fire at the factor in umm al Thaoub industrial area, he also commended the rapid response of civil defence departments in ras al Khaimah, Ajman and Sharjah.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The civil defence has again stressed the importance of the availability of safety equipment, such as smoke alarms, in houses and establishments as they can play a vital role in protecting humans and preserving property. The civil defence said that the importance of the smoke alarm is that it alerts early in case there is a fire in the building, as it facilitates the detection of the location of the smoke and helps to quickly fight the fire.
Iran
Twenty-six people have died, and more than 4300 have been injured during Iran’s traditional festival of fire. Most of the deaths and injuries were reported in the capital Tehran, local health officials said. The annual festival dates back 2,500 years and has its roots in pre-Islamic Persia when Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in the region. Preparations for the festival begin weeks ahead and include the manufacture of homemade firecrackers and explosives. On the night of the festival, people take to the streets, set off firecrackers and explosives and dance around and jump over bonfires. This year showed a 22% increase in injuries.
As per official statistics, 79% of victims were men and 21% were women while 44% of victims were aged between 6 and 18, many of them admitted to hospitals. This year several ambulances were damaged, and police confiscated a larger quantity of dangerous explosives. In the southern port city of Bandar abbas, eight firefighters have been injured trying to contain a fire huge fire that erupted after explosions in two petroleum reservoirs of the Aftab oil refining company’s refinery in Iran. There were concerns of the flames spreading and other nearby reservoirs exploding. Footage of a large column of black smoke billowing from an industrial compound. The injured firefighters were treated on the scene before heading back to extinguish the fire, the cause of which is unknown.
Egypt
The three British tourists, missing after a scuba diving boat they were on caught fire off Egypt’s Red Sea coastline, are presumed dead after an extensive search of the area. In a short statement, Egypt’s Red Sea Governorate said 14 crew members and 12 British tourists were rescued when a medium-sized scuba diving boat went up in flames near the resort town marsa alam. People at the scene said the flames engulfed the boat in a matter of minutes. Following an initial examination of the vessel, Egyptian authorities said an electrical short circuit in the boat engine room sparked the blaze
Jordan
An apartment fire in Amman has left four people dead. The fire broke out in an apartment in the al-nucha area of Amman leaving the victims with serious burns. The civil defence crew transferred them to the Prince Hamzah government hospital, but they succumbed to their injuries. An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the fire.
Elsewhere in Amman, two people died when several warehouses containing polystyrene foam caught fire. Five other people were injured during the blaze but did not need hospitalisation. The 2000m2 warehouses in the Al-Juwayyidah area, southeast of Amman. Dozens of operational civil defence vehicles and relevant agencies participated in extinguishing the fire and an investigation was initiated to find out the cause
Dubai
A lack of compliance with building and safety requirements has caused the death of 16 people in a massive fire that ripped through a residential building in the Al Murar area of Dubai. People nearby tried to enter the building to assist trapped residents after hearing a loud bang, but the smoke was too thick. Fire engines and police attended the scene and used a crane to rescue people from higher floors of the building. The fire broke out on the fourth floor of the building but spread quickly upwards through the buildings aluminium composite cladding. There have also been reports of ad-hoc partitions being present in to create privacy for the multiple individuals who shared apartments in the building, which could have caused the resident’s safe egress from the building to be become blocked.