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Fire drill triggers panic

SHARJAH — A fire drill carried out yesterday by the Sharjah Police and the Civil Defence Department in a 44-storeyed residential tower under construction in Al Buheirah Corniche spread panic among people in the neighbourhood, who believed that the building had caught fire.

A huge crowd gathered around the building with fear writ large in their faces. But they soon heaved a sigh of relief when they found that it was only a mock exercise being carried out by the authorities.

The drill was conducted to check if the local security force was quick enough to respond to fire accidents in highrises.

The departments participating in the drill included special security force, air force, Sharjah Municipality, Electricity and Water Authority, Ambulance and Medical Services as well as Etisalat and Al Falah Military Force. The drill was attended by General Saif Abdullah Al Shaffar, Under-Secretary of the UAE Ministry of Interior as well as top officials from the Sharjah Police Civil Defence and other government departments in the emirate.

At the beginning of the mock exercise, all the units were alerted about a fire breaking out on the 34th and 35th floors of the tower and about tenants being trapped in the flats in the upper floors.

The special security forces rushed to the site and blocked the road leading to the place of the accident while fire-fighting vehicles arrived at the accident site within 10 minutes. Along with other rescue workers, they started to evacuate the building. Within an hour, the units succeeded in evacuating the injured and provided them with first aid and doused the flames before it spread to other floors of the building.

Commenting on the drill, General Al Shaffar said the training of the local security force aims at preparing the police and civil defence to face the challenges posed by the latest developments in the fields of construction and real estate.

• UAE