The Director General of Civil Defense in Sharjah, Colonel Sami Khamis Al-Naqbi, said that firefighters faced difficult challenges in fighting the fire of the “Eppo” tower, which was represented by their need to climb about 49 floors through the stairs to combat the fire from the inside.
He added to «Emirates Today» at the site of the fire that the fire brigades made a great effort in external control of the fire that spread quickly along the facade of the building, which is composed of "cladding", which is easily flammable, and is considered relatively old and is no longer used in new towers and buildings, according to security requirements And safety.
He pointed to the formation of a field operations room at the site, and the distribution of tasks between firefighters and rescue, stressing that they acted professionally and rigorously, as it was necessary for each of them to carry their equipment to the high floors across the stairs, to prevent the fire from spreading to the apartments.
He revealed that flaming blocks fell from the tower during the fire and spread to two other buildings, one of which is under construction, but the civil defense teams quickly intervened and dealt with them, and managed to contain and control the fire in the EPCO tower, pointing out that this type of fire takes longer to combat it Because of the nature of the building, but it was controlled within only about three hours, and then the containment and refrigeration operations started.
Al-Naqbi confirmed that the safety and firefighting systems inside the tower worked normally, and were used in firefighting operations, in addition to civil defense equipment and mechanisms, which also used drones to survey the fire and identify areas of fire spread to combat it.
He pointed out that the fire started first on the lower floor above the parking floors, then spread quickly on the upper floors due to the ease of burning the facade, noting the efforts of the teams who showed professionalism and courage in dealing with the fire despite its difficulty, and the nature of the site of the tower, which is bordered by towers and buildings from various sides.
Al Naqbi confirmed that the civil defense cadres in the Emirate of Sharjah dealt with the fire quickly with an immediate response that did not exceed six minutes, after which the evacuation of the residents and the use of drones to detect people inside the apartments.
He continued: «The information showed that the fire broke out at nine and four minutes in the evening on Tuesday in a 49-storey tower, of which 328 apartments and parking spaces, resulted in minor injuries, were taken to the hospital for treatment and reassurance.
In addition, the Commander-in-Chief of Sharjah Police, Major General Saif Al-Zari Al-Shamsi, confirmed that the security teams cooperated with civil defense teams during the course of fire control, pointing out that work is being done by specialists in the police criminal laboratory to find out the cause of the fire and stand on it.
And that the police have a societal role in addition to their security role, as they set two plans to accommodate all residents of the tower, pointing out that all residents were accommodated in hotels in the emirate and allocated five buses to transport them, in addition to providing food meals for them, and all their special needs, in cooperation with charitable bodies.
The Commander in Chief of Sharjah Police explained that the speed of communication with the owner of the property and its CEO led to the rapid containment of the issue of housing for the residents, as the owner of the tower expressed his willingness to accommodate the residents and worked on that directly and responded to all their requests to provide a suitable housing for them under the current circumstances, indicating that he did not No serious injuries are detected, all of which are minor and negligible.
He stated that upon receipt of the communication, the police formed a central operation room at the site of the fire, and all parties concerned in the emirate were contacted in cooperation with the civil defense to contain the fire as soon as possible, indicating that a security cordon had been made for the residents, recording their data and recording information on the contents of all their apartments of papers and special needs To limit it, in addition to forming community committees to determine their needs and provide them.
And that some of the residents may have lost official papers or damaged due to the fire, and the residents will be dealt with exceptionally after taking stock and knowing the damage inside the apartments, indicating that the issue needs time, but there is a vigorous follow-up to the damage to monitor it and compensate the residents for it.
He pointed to the role of the Red Crescent and the Sharjah Charity Association in expressing their willingness to provide any support to the population by providing them with housing or meals, pointing out that the damage that has been surveyed so far is the damage of some residential apartments from the inside and the front of the residential tower, and six cars that were standing under the residential tower .
He stated that the fire took hours to extinguish and control him due to its height, as firefighting teams were keen to contain the fire to prevent its transmission to the neighboring towers, pointing to the efficiency and high expertise of the security and firefighting teams in managing the event.
Cute requests
The Commander-in-Chief of Sharjah Police, Major General Saif Al-Zari Al-Shamsi, stated that among the funny stories that the security and firefighting teams dealt with was the demand by a person of his cat that was in one of the apartments, and his request was met, and the cat was searched for and called out in its name after it was taken from its owner, indicating that the requests of the residents were It is a priority for the police, especially in light of the current situation and the holy month.
Securing the needs of the residents of the tower and housing them in hotels.
• 6 cars were burned out, and the front of the tower was damaged.