JEDDAH, 17 May 2005 — Investigations continue into the cause of a fire that broke out last Tuesday morning in a hostel housing women students from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah. Early indications already point to a lack of proper fire safety measures in the building.
Prince Abdul Majeed, governor of Makkah region, has appointed a committee consisting of individuals from the Civil Defense, Umm Al-Qura University and the police to investigate the matter. Some media reports have hinted that the fire resulted from a water pipe but the students have vehemently denied the accusations since smoking is not allowed in the hostel.
The most likely cause seems to be a short circuit but Jameel Arbaeen, director of the Makkah Civil Defense, said he would not rule anything out at this point. At present, the hostel remains unoccupied and without electricity and the students will not return until the investigation has been completed and all required safety measures are in place.
Twenty-three women students from Umm Al-Qura University were hospitalized for smoke inhalation after they were trapped on the fifth and sixth floors of the hostel. Firemen rescued them using ladders. Three teams from the health department and six units of the Saudi Red Crescent also took part in the rescue operation.
Dr. Sheikha Ashour, the deputy dean at the university, said, “There are no fire detectors or fire alarms in the building. Although the dorm supervisor panicked in the rush to evacuate the girls and failed to use the fire extinguishers, she managed, with the help of the female guard and some girls, to get the girls on the lower floors out in an orderly fashion.”
The girls, however, told a different story, according to Okaz newspaper. They said there had been a great deal of pushing and shoving on the stairs and that by the time the supervisor was awake, the smoke had filled the building and that the supervisor did not act quickly enough or behave professionally.
The building, which housed 160 students, is one of five rented by the university to house women students. Inspectors found it to be lacking in basic safety measures such as emergency exits and smoke detectors.
After the school fire in 2002 in which 15 teenage girls burned to death and nearly 50 others were injured, the Civil Defense Department requires safety measures on all buildings before being rented, but this building had been rented before the implementation of the new regulations. The university administration could not force the owner to provide the safety measures because he had a report stating that it was safe, according to Okaz newspaper.
In addition, all the building’s windows were blocked from the outside with steel shutters which prevented the girls from opening the windows to let the smoke out. Besides being a safety hazard and creating an unhealthy environment with no air or light coming in, the girls complained that the shutters made them feel like prisoners. The firefighters had to break or remove the shutters in order to reach the girls and bring them down the ladders.
“The shutters are to protect the girls from intruders but the way they were installed is wrong; they should be installed about half-a-meter away from the windows to allow them to open a little,” said Maj. Ziad Al-Zaidi of the Civil Defense Department.
Another problem he pointed out is lack of training of the residents concerning evacuation and safety measures. “They should conduct fire drills and train each student how to use fire extinguishers and administer first-aid,” he said.
In general, the officer said that in Makkah fire trucks have problems in reaching fires due to the lack of street addresses and the city’s narrow streets. Furthermore, there is no printed plan at building entrances to help the firefighters know where to go once inside the building; a plan is of vital importance in the event of thick smoke and limited visibility.
