4 Indians among 16 dead in Dubai building fire

Dubai: At least four Indians, including a couple from Kerala, were among the 16 people dead after a massive fire broke out in a residential building in Dubai that also injured nine people, a media report said on Sunday.

The Dubai Civil Defence Operations Room was notified about the fire at a building in Dubai’s old neighbourhood of Al Ras at 12.35 pm on Saturday, Gulf News reported.

The massive fire broke out on the fourth floor of the building and began spreading to other areas, the paper said.

A team from the Dubai Civil Defence headquarters arrived at the site of the blaze and began evacuating residents in the building.

Teams from the Port Saeed Fire Station and the Hamriyah Fire Station were also summoned.

The flames were doused by 2:42 pm (local time), the paper said.

Quoting Naseer Vatanappally, an Indian social worker who was at the Dubai Police mortuary, the paper reported that four Indians, including a couple from Kerala, have been identified among the victims.

“So far, we have managed to identify 4 Indians, including a couple from Kerala and two men from Tamil Nadu who worked at the building, 3 Pakistani cousins and a Nigerian woman,” Vatanappally said.

Vatanappally said he was coordinating with Dubai Police, the Indian Consulate in Dubai, other diplomatic missions and friends and relatives of the deceased, the report said.

Preliminary investigations showed the building lacked adequate safety requirements, the Dubai Civil Defence spokesperson said.

Authorities are conducting a comprehensive investigation to provide a detailed report on the causes of the fire, it added. (PTI)