200 evacuated from RAK building due to gas leak

Ras Al Khaimah - "All the residents of the building were safely evacuated as a precautionary measure to avoid any mishap due to a possible fire or explosion due to the gas leak."

The department of civil defence in Ras Al Khaimah recently evacuated 200 people from a residential building on the Qarm road in the emirate following reports of a gas leak in the building.
Sources at the department told Khaleej Times that firefighters and rescue teams rushed to the site on being alerted by the central operations room of the RAK police about a LPG leak.
"All the residents of the building were safely evacuated as a precautionary measure to avoid any mishap due to a possible fire or explosion due to the gas leak."
A special company has been summoned to check and fix the gas leak after tightly closing all the LPG supplies, distributors, and regulators, they added. "The civil defence teams then sucked out all the air filled with gas therein." Luckily, no casualties or injuries were reported due to the gas leak which was discovered and secured by the concerned company, he noted.
Battery explodes in bag
Meanwhile, an informed source at the civil defence department in Ras Al Khaimah disclosed that a small fire that erupted at the Skyline School for Girls at Al Rams city in Ras Al Khaimah due to the explosion of an old calculator battery.
"The fire was earlier attributed in some media reports to an explosion of a laptop in the school bag of a girl there, but later it proved to be due an overheated old calculator battery."
A teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, told Khaleej Times that the incident was first reported by a cleaner who was in front of the class when he saw smoke filling up the class.
"The smoke and then fire started from the bag of a grade six student, which spread panic among all students and staffers at the school for fear of possible explosion."
The department of civil defence of Ras Al Khaimah rushed to the site and sucked out the smoke. The fire that gutted the student's bag was already put out by a staff teacher there in the school.
"It was first thought that a student had set some fireworks in the class or it was a heated laptop that lead to the fire, however, there was no laptop in the student's bag, and it was found that it was his calculator battery that had exploded and caused the fire," she said, underlining that the school is equipped with the required fire extinguishers and safety tools to keep students and staffers safe.
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Ras Al Khaimah