A fire broke out in a residential tower on Jamal Abdul Nasir Street in Sharjah on Sunday afternoon. The entire building was quickly evacuated as several civil defence, ambulance, and police teams arrived to control the fire.
The evacuated residents anxiously waited and watched from the safety of nearby buildings as authorities fought to control the blaze, which started at 1pm local time.
According to residents, the fire began on the 11th floor of the 13-storey building.
“When alarm bells started ringing, there was quite a lot of noise in the building. Someone banged on our apartment door. When I came out, a woman shouted, asking us to ‘run’. Only then did we realise that a fire broke out in our building,” said AN, a resident of the building (who did not wish to disclose his identity).
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AN continued, “Smoke was rapidly spreading and engulfing the apartments, so people panicked. Some residents who were taking showers came out running in towels. I could only grab my mobile phone and came out running. We could see everybody running out and leaving their doors open.”
Another resident, MZ, said, “I was at work when my family informed me about the fire. I came running, and thank God, they were out of the building and safely evacuated.”