DUBAI, 19 January 2007 — Firefighters yesterday tackled a huge blaze in a 37-story glass-sheathed tower near Jebel Ali that killed at least four workers and injured 41, according to witnesses and wire reports.
The official WAM news agency was saying two were killed and 57 were injured.
Police confirmed that one of the workers was killed trying to climb down from the outside of the unfinished apartment project.
Another casualty was found dead inside the building from an apparent head injury caused when trying to flee the fire and smoke, the police reported.
At least three of the workers are in critical condition, including one Asian worker who fell as he tried to climb down from the outside of the building. Some reports said up to 15 are in serious condition.
Dozens of workers were screaming for help from the top floors of the building.
Indian Consulate sources confirmed that 21 of injured Indians have been admitted to various hospitals.
“We are still trying to get the correct figures of death and injuries,” Indian Consul B.S. Mubarak told Arab News yesterday. Witnesses said the fire broke out around 12.40 p.m. on the 33rd floor.
Fire and ambulance crews on the ground were evacuating the workers by ladders from different floors. Rescuers could be seen carrying injured workers on stretchers and putting them in ambulances. The emergency services had to fight more than three hours to rescue laborers from the smoke and flames.
Black smoke billowing from the building could be seen for miles. Traffic tailed back from Dubai Marina to Jebel Ali for hours.
“Some of the workers were trying to climb down on cables. One guy in red was trying to climb down and then he just fell. It was horrible,” Louise Olson, 25, from Denmark, who watched the scene from her whirlpool bath in a high-rise that faces the burning tower, told The Associated Press. As hundreds of onlookers on the street below watched stunned, firefighters struggled in a dramatic rescue, smashing skyscraper windows to reach a man perched for more than an hour on a narrow 13th floor ledge. The crowd cheered as rescuers grabbed the man and tugged him to safety.
Black smoke billowed for about two hours from the upper floors of the blue-glass building, located in a cluster of dozens of apartment towers under construction on Dubai’s southern outskirts.
Trapped laborers in blue coveralls could be seen waving towels at hovering helicopters or climbing to the roof on scaffolding. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Attempts by Dubai’s emergency services to extinguish the fire and rescue the trapped workers appeared at a loss. A rescue helicopter was unable to land on the building’s roof, and firefighters on the ground took hours to start evacuating workers out from a 10th story window, even after most of the smoke had dissipated. The injured laborers were from India, Pakistan and China; most suffered from smoke inhalation, according to Dubai police.
— With input from agencies
