Families evacuated as fire destroys high-rise apartment

Families and tenants were evacuated from the 12-storey Sharjah building as a precaution.

SHARJAH // A fire gutted an apartment in a high-rise building on Saturday night.

The third-floor apartment in Al Buheirah was completely destroyed, Sharjah Civil Defence said. Families and tenants were evacuated from the 12-storey building as a precaution.

Civil defence were alerted to the fire at 5.47pm and dispatched teams from its headquarters, Samnan and Al Mina to tackle the blaze.

Lt Col Sami Al Naqbi, director of civil defence, said no casualties were reported.

“Police and civil defence teams cordoned the area, and residents from the 12-storey building near the Corniche were evacuated as a precaution,” he said.

After the blaze was put out, civil defence teams cooled the apartment and handed it over to a police forensics team to determine the cause.

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