Red Crescent provides shelter for Sharjah fire victims

Sharjah - The families will live temporarily in houses provided by the Emirates Red Crescent until restoration of their damaged apartments is complete.

Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler's Representative in the Western Region and President of the Emirates Red Crescent, has given orders to provide aid and suitable housing for 150 families affected by the fire in a residential tower located at King Faisal Road in Sharjah on Thursday.
The families will live temporarily in houses provided by the Emirates Red Crescent until restoration of their damaged apartments is complete.
As part of its response to Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed's orders, the Red Crescent is working to meet the basic needs of the affected residents of the tower.
The Sharjah Police on Friday cordoned off the 32-floor building and did not allow the residents to enter the building to collect their left-over belongings from their gutted apartments. The families had gathered around the building as they wanted to go to their apartments to take their important documents, such as passports, cheque books and some clothes. However, they were restrained from doing so.
Hakam Radwan, who lived on the 16th floor of the building, said they were provided room in Al Salam hotel by the Red Crescent charity organisation. Radwan said although he spent the night comfortably, he wanted to go back to his apartment to check for important documents and other necessary things for his kids that he hoped may have been spared by the fire.
"The police refused to allow us inside to inspect our apartment and take our belongings," he said.
Another resident Safwan Abdullkareem said: "We spent the night in Al Reem hotel provided to us by the Red Crescent and in the morning decided to go to the building to see if there were some left-over belongings that we could take. But the police refused to allow us in and said until they were ordered by Al Buhaira police, which is in charge of the accident, not to allow anyone inside. The Red Crescent charity said this shelter will be temporary and will have to arrange some other places until the issue is over and then we can go back to our apartments."
Speaking to Khaleej Times, police officials at the site said that the building is not safe for all tenants to go inside at once. "We only allowed tenants of first to fourths floor to enter and get their belongings under supervision of rescue units to ensure their safety. After they all come out then we will allow for the next four floors, but now it is getting dark we can't allow any more people to enter. But for sure next morning they will be allowed to take their belongings in proper and safety way for their protection" he said
Hotels refuse to give shelter
The affected tenants spent the night in various hotels including, Al Salam and Al Reem provided by Red Crescent and other charity organisation. However, according to sources, many hotels even refused to accommodate the affected families despite having vacant rooms but they were forced by the police to let out the rooms to the families. However, Al Salam and Al Reem hotels volunteered to give shelter to the residents.
Abdullah Al Suwaidi, director General of Sharjah Civil Defence said that after the cooling operation - which continued until Friday - to ensure that the fire does not erupt again, the building has been handed over to the forensic experts who launched an investigation to determine the cause the fire.
A source from the forensic experts team said that most probably the fire was caused by a short circuit, because the wires were not well covered and even the cooling system of the building required full maintenance.
The committee also comprising engineers from municipality and other departments concerned started the inspection to evaluate the building. They said building evaluation report will be ready by next week to show if the building can be repopulated. If yes, then it will ask the building's management to renovate it for residents again. -afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Sharjah