MAKKAH, 20 July 2007 — Horrified survivors of the Makkah hotel fire that killed three people and injured 26 others on Tuesday, remembered yesterday how they battled the flames and smoke to escape from the inferno.
The Al-Rwaisi Al-Gazza Hotel that caught fire had fifteen floors and overlooked the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Makkah. Civil Defense rescue workers evacuated 905 people from the hotel on Al-Iza Street.
Fatimah Ali, a Jordanian pilgrim and a resident at the hotel said, “I thank God for rescuing me and all my relatives from this horrible fire.” When the fire started Fatimah was in the Grand Mosque. When she went back to her room at 1:45 p.m., she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“At first I thought that the fire started in a different hotel, but when I saw some residents hanging from the hotel’s windows stuck trying to find a way out to save their lives, I was shocked and started to pray for them,” said Fatimah. She tried to enter the hotel, but civil defense officers and the police took her to a nearby hotel where she found her relatives.
Haj Abdullah from the United Arab Emirates was also a hotel resident. His room was on the eleventh floor. He told Arab News that the hotel supervisors never advised the residents on how to use emergency exits. In fact, there were no emergency evacuation blueprints in the hotel.
“When the fire started, I didn’t know what to do or where to go,” he said. “If it wasn’t for God’s help, I would have burned to death.” He saw one of the hotel employees, who obviously knew his way out, escaping so he followed him and managed to survive.
“We almost suffocated because of the smoke. When we left the hotel, paramedics were there to help us.”
Fadilah Al-Haj, one of the hotel residents, explained that the fire was horrifying and that she had never seen anything like it. It started in a balcony on the 12th floor of the 15-floor building where a group of people got stuck and couldn’t escape. Fire blocked the way to the only exit available on the hotel premises. There were also no dedicated emergency exits.
Lt. Jamil Arbaeen, manager of the civil defense department in Makkah, told Arab News that they still don’t know what started the fire. The fire investigation committee is still examining all the details. Arabeen said that the only exit in the hotel was not sufficient to help people escape because the fire blocked the way.
The 26 injured people left King Faisal Hospital after they received necessary treatment. A 53 year-old Bengali is in the intensive care unit in the Al-Noor Hospital. He has 1st degree burns, 2nd degree burns and 3rd degree burns on 25 percent of his body.
