DUBAI: Authorities are investigating a fire of still-undetermined origin that broke out at a building housing mostly overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and Indian nationals at about approximately an hour before midnight of July 7, Saturday, near the Al Fahidi metro station.
Witnesses said most residents went early to bed as usual that evening in preparation for the start of the work week ahead, when the fire alarm went off and people started knocking on doors to rouse everyone.
“There was an alarm,” Winston Pinto, a resident who lives on the third floor, told The Filipino Times. “One of my neighbors told me there was a fire and that we have to go downstairs. Everybody was carrying bags and their passports,” Pinto added.
The building has seven floors. Witnesses said the fire started in a room on the seventh floor; things would have gone worse, they said, if the fire had started on the lower floors as it could trap occupants with the thick smoke causing suffocation.
Smoke was seen bellowing from the top floor as residents started pouring out into the street – some in their night clothes, witnesses said.
Police officials said they are looking into the matter.