Early morning fire kills 11 men in Dubai

A fire tore through a villa complex in Deira housing hundreds of labourers, killing at least 11 and injuring dozens more.

The scene of the fire in the Naif area of Deira where at least 11 people died and dozens were injured on Aug 27 2008.

DUBAI // At least 11 people died and dozens were injured yesterday in a pre-dawn fire that swept through a two-storey, 30-room villa complex in which as many as 500 labourers may have been living illegally. Witnesses saw panic-stricken men jumping out of second-floor windows to escape the flames, while neighbours rushed to help people who ran screaming from the villa with their clothes on fire. As survivors were pulled out of the wreckage, Civil Defence rescue teams searched through the debris looking for bodies. The roof of the building collapsed as the fire took hold, blocking escape routes and hampering the rescue operation. Last night, police confirmed that 11 bodies had been recovered but the toll may yet rise; some are still feared to be missing, while hundreds are left homeless with their few possessions destroyed. But sources said it was likely 13 had perished in the fire, with one survivor from the building dying in an ambulance while another died in hospital. Most of the villa's occupants are thought to have been asleep when the fire broke out at about 5.30am. Later, the remains of three of the victims could be seen still lying on their beds. One survivor, Gellegandhar, whose brother died in the blaze, described how panic and confusion broke out inside the villa as the fire started. "I woke up and people were rushing around. Some said go back to sleep and some said to run," he said. "There were flames blocking the doorway of one of the rooms. Anybody brave enough to go through that doorway survived, while those who didn't died. My brother was one of them." He was one of the lucky ones who escaped with his life and just a nasty burn on his arm to be treated. Another grief-stricken man who escaped the flames only to discover his brother had also perished spoke of how quickly the inferno had engulfed the building. "When I opened my eyes it was fire everywhere," said Shankar Palep, who has worked in Dubai for nine years. "My best chance was to jump out from the window." Mr Palep broke his hand when he leapt from his second-storey room. He had been unable to rescue his brother Gangaram, 45, who died in the flames. "I lost my brother and I am left with only the clothes I am wearing," said Mr Palep. "Our passports, money and every valuable collected after coming here is destroyed." Akram Ali, who lives opposite the villa, near the new Naif Souq in Deira, said he and other neighbours had tried to help the badly burnt workers who fled from the burning building. "We threw blankets on them to douse the fire," he said. "They were rushed to the hospital." Abdul Jaleel Mahdi Mohammed, deputy director of preventive security at Dubai Police, who was present at the site, confirmed early evening that 10 men had died in the fire. Survivors were taken to hospital, many suffering minor burns and smoke inhalation. One man, who said he lived in the villa and had returned home from work to find the scene of devastation, sat on the pavement in tears, shaking his head in disbelief. Everything he owned had been lost, he said. As word of the tragedy spread, relatives of some of the villa's occupants gathered around the site, anxiously waiting for news of loved ones. Among them was Srinivas, a construction worker from Dubai, who rushed to the scene to find out about his brother and uncle who lived in the villa and were both missing. "Both of them were working on night shifts and were possibly sleeping when this happened. I fear they were unaware of the fire," he said. By afternoon, news of the fire and loss of life had been reported in the Indian media, leaving families at home worried about the fate of relatives who had left villages and towns to find work in Dubai. "We have a list of 10 missing Indian men who were in the villa. They are all from Andhra Pradesh in southern India and were living in various rooms in the villa," said Dr Shashikala, a social worker who was assisting rescue workers. Survivors and occupants who had been away at the time of the blaze last night said they had nowhere to go and did not know if temporary accommodation had been arranged. Others claimed there appeared to be no emergency food or water handouts. Thirty men left homeless were offered a place to stay for the night by Dr Shashikala. Officials from the Indian Consulate were also at the scene, seeking information on those who had perished in the fire and promised all necessary support to the families of the deceased. Although police were advising relatives at the scene to contact hospitals, Srinivas and other family members were planning to camp outside the villa all night, "I do not know what to tell my family, so I will not leave here until I get some news about them," he said. Mr Palep claimed that as many as 20 people had been living in each of the villa's 30 rooms, arriving, sleeping and leaving at different times. "There were easily 500 people living in the villa but most just come here to sleep and go away for work in the morning," he said. Dubai Civil Defence officials said the villa, behind a police station, had been illegally divided into dozens of small rooms; with gas cylinders lying around everywhere, the fire was almost inevitable, they said. One theory was that the fire, which spread extremely rapidly, may have started in the kitchen of the villa, with the possibility that a gas-cylinder explosion may have been to blame. Earlier this year the municipality began evicting people from illegally shared villas, saying the overcrowding posed a danger to health and safety. Bad as it was, the death toll could have been worse. Because the villa was behind Naif police station, Civil Defence rescuers arrived at the villa within minutes and were able to bring the fire under control swiftly. They also evacuated neighbouring villas in case the flames spread. Last night, as the light began to fade, rescue teams and specially trained sniffer dogs were continuing to search through the wreckage, looking for victims. As darkness fell, the rescue workers were forced to stop but were due to return at first light today. Police cordoned off the site last night and officers were on patrol, clearing the area of bystanders. Police have launched an investigation into the cause of the fire. @email:[e-mail] @email:[e-mail] @email:[e-mail]