Feathered friends rescued from Sharjah fire

Civil Defence crews stumbled upon some unexpected residents in a building that was going up in flames on Monday.

Firefighters in Sharjah rescued ducks, chickens and pigeons being engulfed in flames. Courtesy Sharjah Cvil Defence

SHARJAH // Firefighters have been known to rescue cats stuck up trees but crews in Sharjah added a new string to their bow when they rescued ducks, chickens and pigeons being engulfed in flames.

The birds had a lucky escape when they were spotted locked up in cages in a building on three plots of land that were on fire on Monday.

“They were locked up in big built cages inside one of the plots. Fire crews took the birds out and placed them in smaller cages and took them out to safety,” said Lt Col Sami Al Naqbi, director of Sharjah Civil Defence.

The area was mainly used as warehousing space to store scrap metal but one of the buildings also contained diesel barrels, which firefighters managed to avoid fire spreading to.

“Fire teams used foam to contain the fire and stop it from spreading to nearby warehouses,” said Lt Col Al Naqbi, adding that there were no injuries in the incident.

Fire crews from five stations were dispatched to the location after they were alerted to the fire at 11.49am.

After the fire was doused, the site was cooled down before being handed over to Sharjah Police forensic teams to determine the cause.