MAKKAH, 26 December 2006 — At least sixteen people suffered smoke inhalation yesterday when a fire broke out in the Dar Al-Gaza apartments in the Juffali Building located about 200 meters from the Grand Mosque. Officials said that the injured were in stable condition.
“It appears that the fire broke out from the basement of the building and spread to the first floor,” said Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. The cause of the fire, which was quickly extinguished by Civil Defense firefighters, was said to be an electrical short circuit.
The fire proved to be a test for government officials who have boosted vigilance this year in order to decrease response time to emergencies. Witnesses said authorities arrived quickly.
The building was housing about 2,000 pilgrims from Yemen, the UAE and Indonesia, and is located next to the building that collapsed in January during the last Haj season, killing 76 people.
“Firefighters arrived within no time to extinguish the blaze,” said Indian pilgrim Syed Ateequllah, who witnessed the fire. “It looked like it started from the mezzanine floor and quickly engulfed the whole building. People rushed to the rooftop to save their lives.”
A Yemeni diplomat said Yemen’s Waqf (religious endowments) and guidance minister, Hamoud Mohammad Abad, was among those injured. Security agents said they were investigating the cause of the fire. The injured have been admitted to Sheesha, Ajyad and Zahra hospitals in Makkah for treatment. All of them are in a stable condition, hospital sources said.
Since the fire broke out before Asr prayer, most of the residents had gone to the Grand Mosque to pray, leaving mostly elderly pilgrims in the building.
More than 9,600 medical personnel have been mobilized and 21 field hospitals are set up at Makkah and Madinah for this year’s pilgrimage, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
The official SPA news agency said Interior Minister Prince Naif, who also heads the Haj Supreme Committee, would inspect today security arrangements at Makkah and also attend a parade of security and Civil Defense forces in the holy city.
The Haj will begin on Thursday, with the faithful assembling in the arid valley of Mina near Makkah. At dawn on Friday, they will begin moving toward Mount Arafat where they will spend the day praying and asking for God’s forgiveness at the Haj summit. The pilgrims will then return to Mina to sacrifice an animal, usually a sheep, for Eid Al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, on Saturday.
The SPA yesterday reported the Haj Commission as saying 1,526,603 people have arrived in the Kingdom through Sunday to take part in this year’s pilgrimage.
In addition to further arrivals from abroad, Saudis and other residents in the country are expected to swell the number of the faithful undertaking the Haj to more than 2.5 million.
The Haj Supreme Committee said 202 pilgrims have died since arriving in the Kingdom, mainly the elderly or infirm. The Interior Ministry is deploying over 50,000 men in the Makkah area for crowd control and to watch out for militants or any disorderly behavior.
