'We are all brothers here'

Bachelors, living 20 to a room, coped with poverty by taking turns to sleep on beds.

The fire took place in an area known locally as Satellite Street, which is home to some of Dubai's poorest residents.

DUBAI // Hundreds of men spent hours watching in silent horror as rescue workers raked through the charred and twisted remains of the Deira villa destroyed in yesterday's fatal early-morning blaze. The men, mainly labourers, were desperate for any information about their missing colleagues, roommates and family members.

Late in the day the worst fears of many were confirmed as rescuers began pulling bodies from the building. Still they clamoured for information - passing details on to police and gathering near ambulances that arrived to transport bodies to the morgue. Others sat in the street with their hands on their heads, weeping. Police cordoned off the scene last night as the recovery work ended, but at each corner of the block dozens of men still kept their vigil. In the surrounding streets, people sat talking and speculating about the cause of the fire.

Earlier in the day neighbours had been horrified to see men jumping out of windows as the fire raged. Many of the victims emerged from the blaze choking from the smoke and with their clothes alight. Dropping to the ground they struggled desperately to extinguish their burning clothing. "I just heard the fire brigade in the morning and looked out of my window," said Anthony D'Silva, a Deira resident. "I was shocked to see the fire and immediately rushed out to help the residents of the villa."

At the scene yesterday afternoon, a large gas canister stood in what remained of a kitchen, open to the sky. Twisted wiring held together with tape still protruded from a wall. Corrugated-iron roofing, warped by the heat of the blaze, lay twisted in a stairwell. The villa housed hundreds of bachelors from countries including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The scene was littered with belongings once used by the workers in their tiny living spaces.

"This is where I had kept my bag with all my papers and money," said one man. "There is no sign of it now." Burnt clothes, footwear, bags and radio sets littered the destroyed building and charred photographs of families and Bollywood stars hung from the doors of each room. The villa was an old Arab-style traditional home with two floors added to accommodate more people. Each room had just enough room for bunk beds, three or four beds high, and a radio or television set. Surviving workers told The National that they took turns to sleep on the beds while the others slept on the floor.

There was a small kitchen area on all the floors which the workers used to make their meals. A palm tree growing in the middle of the villa was burnt to the ground. The workers said that the tree was the only green patch in the house and that everyone was fond of it. Rescue operations that started early in the morning had continued for hours as firemen struggled to control the blaze. The firemen were called back again each time new bodies were discovered under rubble.

The rescuers could be seen negotiating their way through small congested rooms to pull out victims whose burnt bodies were trapped below layers of furniture and bricks. Charred bodies were seen lying on beds as if they had been unaware of the fire and died in their sleep. One man, Mallaya, who had had a narrow escape, said there were at least 20 people living in each room of the house. "The fire started from the lower floor so many of us who were living on the top escaped," he said.

"We feel sad for the men who died. It could have been any one of us." They had been living in such poor conditions, he said, only because they could not afford proper homes. Shankar Palep, who survived the incident with a broken hand but whose brother perished in the fire, said a wall in the villa had collapsed during the fire, claiming more victims. "The wall fell on the heads of two people who died on the spot," he said.

The neighbourhood around the villa is a busy area populated largely by workers. The street, also locally called Satellite Street, is known for the sale of television satellite equipment and other electronic products. However, tucked behind the busy main road are several old villas that are home to some of the poorest residents of the city. While some families live in the few buildings on the street, the area consists largely of bachelor accommodation. When the working day comes to an end the men return for a six-hour sleep before waking early the following day and heading off to work again.

"We are all brothers here once we leave our country," said Altaf Khan, a neighbour who helped some of the injured and relatives who gathered at the villa. "It is a big tragedy and I can imagine the grief of their family." Abdulla Akram, a shopkeeper in Naif who witnessed yesterday's blaze as well the fire that destroyed the nearby Naif Souk earlier this year, said: "This has become a sad fact of this part of the city. We wonder if anyone is safe here."

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