Two dead and five hurt in Sharjah supermarket fire

Two people died and five were injured in a fire in a supermarket chain in Sharjah near Rolla Square. Thaer Zriqat / The National

SHARJAH // Two people died and five were injured after a fire broke out in a supermarket.

The blaze started in the groundfloor store near Rolla Square late on Friday, Sharjah Civil Defence said.

The operations room was alerted to the fire at 11.32pm and dispatched crews to the location.

The 19-storey building was evacuated and police cordoned off the area.

“There were two fatalities and five injuries in the fire,” said Col Sami Al Naqbi, director of Sharjah Civil Defence.

Electricity and gas supply was cut off to the building until 9am Saturday.

“After 11pm we were alerted to a fire and called the building watchman to know what to do, he told us the supermarket on the ground floor was burning and told us to evacuate the building,” said Unni Velloil, who lives on the 7th floor of the building on Al Orobaa Street.

“There was a lot of smoke in the hallway, we couldn’t see but managed to get to the stairs and went to the parking lot connecting two buildings and went out to the street safely,” said the 60-year-old Indian.

The building’s watchman said the elevators were shut down.

“The electricity was cut off, tenants evacuated the building from the back side and some of them went up to the roof top until it was put out,” he said.

“At 9am the next day, electricity was restored to the building while the gas was still turned off as a precaution.”