JEDDAH, 23 April 2007 — Hundreds of school pupils and teachers were rescued by the Civil Defense after a fire engulfed their school in Najran early Saturday. The 256 pupils and their teachers had to wait at a nearby farm while fire fighters brought the fire under control. The fire started when an electric box outside the school exploded, Al-Watan daily reported.
Likewise, a fire started in a classroom at a girls’ school in Makkah. The authorities said a faulty heater caused the fire.
The general public is raising alarm over the increasing frequency of fire accidents, which are mostly blamed on a lack of safety precautions. According to Al-Riyadh daily, in Jeddah alone the civil defense attended 21 fires in just three days.
Col. Muhammad Al-Thagafi, the head of safety regulations, told Arab News that the Civil Defense cooperates with educational institutes to ensure school administrative bodies keep an eye on health and safety issues. “The staff at schools also show a lot of concern and cooperation. We provide training courses to teach them how to deal with fires and how to evacuate buildings,” he added.
“We try to increase awareness through the media and by holding different events. We aim to teach the coming generations rules relating to fire safety by concentrating more on schools,” Al-Thagafi said.
Fires are not confined to schools. Recently fires were reported at the King Fahd Hospital in Madinah and in a train in Dammam. A source told Al-Madinah newspaper that the fire extinguishers in the train were not working.
On Saturday evening a fire raged in the southern areas of Jeddah, particularly around a garbage tip located there.
It took the civil defense five hours to put the fire out.
