Major fires in the UAE

Fires in the UAE that took place from January 2007 to May 2013.

January 2007

Four construction workers were killed and 67 were injured when a fire engulfed Fortune Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, which was still under construction. One man fell to his death as he was trying to climb down the side of the high-rise building to escape. The labourers had crowded on to the roof to escape the fire, where some were rescued by helicopter.

September 2009

Three children aged 3, 5 and 7 and their grandmother died from suffocation in Sharjah when fire swept through their house in Nassiriya.

December 2009

Two people died and 32 were injured in Abu Dhabi's Tourist Club area after a fire in an eight-storey building in Hamdan Street. It was believed to have started in an electrical room on the ground floor.

May 2010

Two men died in a paint factory fire in Sharjah. Their bodies, which were discovered by employees of the company, National Paints, were not found for two months.

May 2010

A fire at a 12-storey building on Al Falah street in Abu Dhabi destroyed five flats and left 80 homeless. Many were forced to sleep in cars and on the street.

July 2010

More than 200 families lost their homes when fire destroyed the 14-storey Al Kuwait Tower residential building.

May 2011

A mother and her son died in a house fire in Al Ain. Her husband used his 4x4 vehicle to ram a hole through the home's back wall to rescue 13 women and a nine-month-old baby trapped unconscious in the flames and smoke.

June 2011

A mother and her four children were killed in a house fire in Al Ain's Remah district, despite her husband's frantic attempts to save his family. The four children died of burns and smoke inhalation at Tawam Hospital, and the mother died on the way to the hospital.

August 2011

Four workers were killed in a fire caused by an electrical fault in a two-storey makeshift building in a Mussaffah labour camp.

December 2011

Two men died in a fire in a 15-storey building on the corner of Muroor Road and Al Falah in Abu Dhabi. Two people were rescued with ladders from windows. Civil defence said a lack of safety in the building had resulted in the deaths of the Arab men.

February 2012

More than 900 workers lost their belongings in a fire at a labour camp in Al Gharbia. No one was injured but 280 rooms were destroyed.

April 2012

More than 100 families were left homeless when fire ripped through the 40-storey Al Baker building in Sharjah.

May 2012

A fire broke out and spread to two warehouses in the Umm Ramool district of Dubai. No one was injured.

June 2012

A fire in an industrial warehouse in Sharjah killed one worker with five men escaping.

August 2012

Several members of an Emirati family died in a villa fire in Ajman. Six women were killed - a mother, her three daughters and two housemaids.

August 2012

Firefighters fought for more than five hours to extinguish a blaze that destroyed four warehouses in the Ras Al Khor Industrial Area in Dubai. Police and rescue teams evacuated the neighbouring buildings and no injuries were reported.

August 2012

A fire gutted a warehouse in Al Quoz, destroying a supermarket's stock of food, clothes and electronics. No one was hurt.

October 2012

A father and his eldest son died of suffocation while rescuing 12 members of their family from a fire that gutted their Sharjah home.

October 2012

Two men risked death to save the lives of dozens of people fleeing a fire that ripped through a 13-storey Saif Belhasa building in Tecom in Dubai. More than 300 people were moved out but there were no injuries.

October 2012

One of the 11 workers injured in a gas explosion at an Al Quoz labour camp died. A faulty gas cylinder used for cooking began a series of explosions in their camp. Fifteen men were preparing dinner in the communal first-floor kitchen of the three-storey Al Shafar National Contracting accommodation when the explosions happened.

November 2012

A fire gutted half of a residential tower block in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, leaving 160 families homeless. Dubai police said a discarded cigarette butt ignited rubbish piled up outside the building.

January 2013

Two Asian men died when an empty fuel tank exploded and split in half inside a maintenance shop in the M-11 zone in Mussaffah.

May 2013

Three Pakistani men died and eight were injured in a tower block fire in the city near the corner of Airport Road and Delma Street. They were asleep in their flat on the third floor, where the blaze began, and are believed to have suffocated.