Sharjah: Residents of Nasser Tower in Sharjah, where a massive fire left at least dozens of apartments gutted, are unsure if they can move back to their apartment ever again.
The high-rise blaze left around 250 families homeless, though the Emirates Red Crescent has provided temporary accommodation to the affected families in several hotels in Sharjah.
The authorities allowed some residents to enter their apartments for a few minutes on Saturday to collect necessary belongings, while several families were waiting for their turn to go up and grab their valuables on Sunday.
“Yesterday (Saturday) the officials allowed us to go back and get our belongings. We were only allowed 30 minutes. We gathered whatever we could and came down. We had walk up and down the stairs of 17 floors,” said Rabia, a Syrian resident, who was waiting to go back up again on Sunday to collect more stuff.
As a precautionary measure, authorities are only allowing small groups of people into the building, several residents gathered around the building waiting for their turn.
Eva Vilches, a flight attendant, who was out of the country when the fire erupted, got a shock when she arrived.
“I was told by the taxi driver that there was fire in a building in Sharjah and when I reached my building I found which building it was. I came back yesterday, spent the last night in a hotel and since morning I have been waiting to go to my apartment to get my belongings,” said Eva, who has been living in the building for two years.
Pakistani Imran lived on the 25th floor of the building in a five-bedroom apartment, with his 12-member family.
He said he climbed the 32 floors, including the six floors of parking, on Saturday, when he was allowed to go in only for a few minutes.
“I found the main door of my apartment was broken, but everything else was safe. We were given only a few minutes inside when we went up. We could only grab a few things. I don’t know till when we will live like this. We are not getting any clear picture about the future. We can’t go back to work, our kids can’t go to school, we are in total disarray,” said Imran.
He suggested that the authorities should restart at least one elevator to help people go up and down.
Imran added that with the water pipes burst, AC ducts damaged and no electricity, nobody would be able to move back any time soon.
Another resident, Yash, who only moved in last month, also said it is impossible to live in the building any time soon, if at all they want to go back.
Tek Chand, a resident on the first floor of the building, said: “The flats next to ours have been completely gutted, a balcony of our apartment is burnt. The place is in ruins, I would never want to go back to live in this place with my family again.”
However, the residents are unsure of the immediate course of action, as most of them have renewed their contracts recently and their cheques have been encashed. Several residents said their cheques are due on different dates this month and they have no idea how to stop these from being encashed.
“We went to police with our grievance and told them our situation and asked them to help us stop the cheques from being encashed, but the police told us they can’t do anything,” said another resident.
