Ten rescued from apartment blaze

ABU DHABI // About 10 people were rescued by firemen yesterday morning after their 12-storey apartment building caught fire. The residents of the building opposite the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank on Sheikh Zayed the First Street became trapped after the blaze broke out on the sixth floor. The fire, thought to have been caused by a malfunctioning air-conditioning unit, spread quickly and trapped some of the residents on higher floors, forcing some to seek refuge on the roof.

The fire destroyed rooms on the sixth and seventh floors, where afterwards washing could be seen hanging on charred balconies. "When I went outside, already the smoke was there," said Grace Magbanua, 27, from the Phillipines. Ms Magbanua said she tried to leave the building through the stairwell, but was instead forced to go onto the roof where she spent three hours while the fire was brought under control.

"I was scared," she said. Large crowds gathered around the building. Shajahan Mathrancod, the circulation supervisor at Al Khaleej newspaper, was woken up at 10.30am by his building's watchman, who was checking whether there was something burning in his room. Having found nothing, the watchman checked the adjacent room. "When [he] opened this, there was thick smoke inside," said Mr Mathrancod. The fire was brought under control by about 1pm. One man could be seen being examined by paramedics, though the severity of his injuries was unclear.

Meanwhile, residents also evacuated a 15-floor apartment block near the Abu Dhabi Co-operative Society building after a fire there broke out at a similar time. Officials could not be reached for comment on the cause of either fire. Police closed Sheikh Zayed the First Street to traffic travelling away from the mall until around noon, while the fires were being brought under control. The two blazes attracted dozens of emergency vehicles, including technical and quick intervention units, at least one ambulance and a number of police cars.

mchung@thenational.ae