JEDDAH, 20 December 2003 — Two people were injured when a fire broke out in an apartment building in Jeddah during Isha prayers last night. The fire took 30 minutes to extinguish and resulted in SR45,000 in damage. Civil defense personnel believe it was caused by a short circuit.
Civil Defense arrived on the scene within 15 minutes of receiving the emergency call. They entered the apartment while it was ablaze and rescued a man and woman who lost consciousness as a result of smoke inhalation.
The firefighters used a mobile crane to raise themselves onto the roof, where they battled the flames from above.
However, in the excitement, the arm of the crane struck the adjoining building causing pieces of the marble cladding to fall. They narrowly missed other firefighters gathered below.
A resident of the apartment located on Kamel Azhar Street in the Rehab district, told Arab News at the scene: “I was on the Corniche when my father phoned me saying the apartment was on fire. When I came here I found that my grandmother had been taken to hospital with smoke inhalation and that my brother was in the ambulance outside being given oxygen. We are sad at losing many of our belongings, but we are thankful that we are all alive.”
The apartment is located across the street from the district headquarters of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and their parked vehicles blocked the Civil Defense’s access to the building. A tow truck was called but the vehicles were moved before the truck arrived.
