DUBAI, 20 January 2007 — Like many Keralite workers in the Gulf, Hamza Kalladi, 30, came with hopes of clearing debts incurred getting to Dubai and then saving money to build a house back home in his southern Indian state, sending his children through school and retiring in relative comfort.
Instead, Kalladi, son of Kunjappu from Kerala’s Palakkad district, became one of the four fatalities in Thursday’s fire at a high-rise apartment construction project that sent 57 others to hospital.
Kalladi was a building glass fitter. It was his second day on the job. “We even talked on Thursday, the day of the fire,” said Shamsu, a friend working in the neighboring emirate of Sharjah. “I was shocked to see his body at the police morgue.”
Officials have launched an investigation into the cause of the fire that broke out around 12.40 p.m. in the 37-story Fortune Tower on Sheikh Zayed Road in downtown Dubai. Some local media reports said the fire started in electrical or sewage lines in the upper floors, trapping some of the estimated 300 mostly Chinese, Pakistani or Indian construction workers near the upper deck.
Dr. Moin Fikri, emergency physician at the trauma ward of Rashid Hospital, where the injured were taken, said five workers are still in critical condition.
The fire is likely to spur intense debate regarding Dubai’s preparedness in fighting fires in the numerous coastline high-rises that have become the city’s trademark.
Local media said firefighters were still evacuating workers hours after the fire had been extinguished, and a rescue helicopter failed to land on the roof of the building despite repeated efforts. The fire broke out in the same week that Dubai authorities formed a special team to come up with better emergency response plans under a 2006 directive of Sheikh Mohammad ibn Rashid Al-Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE, and the ruler of Dubai.
The tower, which was nearing completion, is one of hundreds currently under construction in the city. Fortune Group was set to deliver the 170-million dirham project by this month. A statement issued by a spokesperson of the Dubai Multi Commodities Center Authority, the master developer of the site, expressed regret and pledged to work with authorities to determine the cause of the accident.
For Kalladi, a father of three girls who borrowed 150,000 rupees ($3,396) to facilitate his work visa to become a Dubai construction worker, the emergency response was too late.
Abdul Aziz, Kalladi’s colleague and roommate in the company’s dorm-style housing for its workers, escaped the fire by scaling a support cable. (A fall from the cables resulted in one of the four casualties.)
Abdul Aziz, who also hails from Palakkad, told Arab News that he decided to climb down the cable when the 26th floor where he was working began filling with smoke. “We saw columns of thick, dark, smoke rapidly curling up the sides of the building with scorching heat,” he said.
Abdul Aziz began scaling down the building from the 25th floor. “I got stopped on 23rd floor and saw Hamza’s body on the floor as fire fighters began taking him to an ambulance,” he said.
Abdul Aziz said he didn’t feel safe following people down the stairs and continued scaling down from the cable. At the 13th floor he was spotted by firefighters. “They asked me to stay put, and they saved me with their ladders,” he said.
The workers who spoke to Arab News say they earn 6.5 dirhams ($1.77) per hour. Abdul Aziz says he and fellow Keralites are trying to figure out how to get Kalladi’s body back home to Palakkad.
