Abu Dhabi fire: Neighbours heard screams but thought they were part of family row

They only realised it was a fire when they heard the ambulance and fire engine sirens.

Khalid Masood Syed, a resident who lives on the 16th floor of Al Sadaf tower on Electra street, shows the charred windows of his bedroom where the fire took place. Sarah Dea/The Nationa

ABU DHABI // Neighbours of a father and daughter, 3, who died in a fire heard screams from the family's apartment as flames ripped through the building.

They thought it was a family row. Instead the blaze claimed the lives of Atif, 39, and his little girl. Atif's father and his other daughter, 12, escaped.

The fire began in apartment 1504 of Al Sadaf tower on Electra Street just before 10am on Monday. "The first thing I heard was ambulance and fire engine sirens, then I looked out and I saw the fire," said Rubina Imran, who lives in the next building.

"My friend, who lives in Al Sadaf on the same floor, I asked her after if she noticed when it started. She said she heard screams from the adjacent flat.

"She is very depressed. She said she normally heard screams from the apartment and thought this was a normal thing - they were often fighting."

Police investigators had cordoned off the scene yesterday and were checking through the debris to try to establish what caused the fire.

Residents said early information pointed to an electrical fault.

The building has two emergency stairwell exits, but residents said they had never practised an emergency evacuation.

Madiha Farman, 18, heard the fire alarms and had time only to grab her phone before fleeing her apartment on the eighth floor. "I went down along with my mother and sister and we were highly scared and terrified," she said.

Khalid Masood Syed, a meteorologist from the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology, lives in apartment 1604 with his wife and four children - directly above the apartment where the fire started.

Mr Syed's family are on holiday in Toronto and he was in Fujairah when the fire started. His daughter saw the news online and called her father from Canada.

"They knew before me through Facebook, it is very fast now," said Mr Syed. "Immediately they saw pictures and comments on Facebook and my daughter calculated the floor the fire was on from the photo.

"They were very worried, they were asking what happened and I told them everything is fine. They relaxed then."

Fire damage to Mr Syed's home is minimal. "The curtain was burnt completely and the window was broken, but luckily nothing else, thank God," he said.

There is evidence of the emergency services' entry into Mr Syed's flat, with several locked doors kicked in to gain access.

The company responsible for fire-alarm and equipment maintenance at Al Sadaf said the building was about 25 years old.

V Babu, from Three Star Construction and Development, said the electrical systems were old and needed upgrading. "We are going to resurvey the entire building's alarm system. The alarm system was fine and it worked well. Every floor including kitchens of all apartments are fitted with fire alarms," he said.

He said his company had not distributed leaflets about safe evacuation because this was usually done only at commercial buildings, but the company would think about doing so for apartment towers too.