Man accused of setting fire to storeroom after being refused transfer from Dubai company

A man is accused of setting fire to paper boxes after he was denied a transfer.

DUBAI // A 43-year-old man set fire to paper boxes at his workplace in revenge for being refused a transfer to his preferred branch, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Thursday.

Filipino E R denied a charge of starting a fire, in an inhabited building, by striking a match and setting alight a number of empty paper boxes which had been left in a storeroom.

“It happened by mistake. I did not mean to do it,” the sales representative told the court.

The fire, which took place on October 13, could have been fatal if not contained in time, one witness told the court.

“If we were seconds late he could have killed many people and burnt the whole place down, or caused a massive explosion, because there are many inflammable materials like cleaning liquids and perfumes and other materials in the store where he started the fire,” M K, the head of security at Carrefour Burjuman, where the defendant’s company has a rented shop, said. The Carrefour employee told the court that on the day of the incident he received a call notifying him about the fire, which was put out shortly thereafter.

M K checked the building’s surveillance cameras after a fellow employee told him he had spotted the fire seconds after the defendant had left the store.

“So I went back to the camera recording and saw that E R went into the store, remained there for about five minutes, then got out. After him walked in the other employee who immediately ran out saying there was a fire,” MK said.

When he asked the defendant about the fire, E R confessed and said he did it because when he asked his company to transfer him to the Jebil Ali branch instead of the one in Burjuman, they refused.

“He confessed without any kind of force or pressure,” M K said.

A written confession was attached to the case file.

The next hearing will be on December 14.