Abu Dhabi: Fire safety at workers’ accommodations has come under the spotlight following the early morning blaze that claimed ten lives in Musaffah last Friday.
The fire started on the first floor of a two-storey commercial building that houses several shops and a car repair outlet. Within minutes, it spread to a second floor warehouse that was being used illegally as workers’ accommodation. The men had no chance. Ten perished in the inferno while another eight were seriously injured.
Since then, authorities have stepped up their crackdown on illegal housing. However, an XPRESS investigation revealed that the law continues to be flouted in the Musaffah industrial area where hundreds of workers still live in unsafe, overcrowded places meant for commercial use.
If the lack of fire exits, smoke detectors or fire extinguishers was not bad enough, a visit to some of these accommodations showed that their doors and partitioned walls were made of highly combustible cheap plywood. Loose electric wires hung like spaghetti everywhere.
At one place we saw four Bangladeshi workers living in a makeshift kitchen. “This is where we cook and sleep,” said a worker. A few blocks away we came across a commercial building in which the entire first floor had been converted into a labour camp.
The dark, dingy, narrow corridor was a maze of wooden partitions with 12 rooms on each side.
Directly below the cramped dwellings are 10 shops including some which sell highly inflammable paint and offer welding services.
But Pakistani foreman Shamim, who shares a room here with six others, remains unfazed by the dangers they pose.
“Nothing to worry here. We follow all safety guidelines and are prepared to tackle any emergency,” he said, pointing to a solitary fire extinguisher placed at the far end of the corridor.
Balveer Singh, 53, from India who works for a car workshop said employers are unwilling to shift workers to designated workers’ quarters in ICAD (Industrial City of Abu Dhabi) or Shabia as it would cost them more money.
“They have rented the shop and they want to utilise every inch of it. This arrangement suits them perfectly as it also spares them the trouble and cost of ferrying workers if they were to live elsewhere.”
Bangladeshi welder Abdul who lives in a nearby building said: “Nobody cares about our safety. We are living in fear since the fire.”
But some shopowners claimed they have moved their staff to ICAD Residential City.
“Six months back the municipality sent me a notice to vacate the rooms above the shops and I immediately moved all my four workers to ICAD,” said Saaddudhin from Syria, who runs a wheel alignment service centre here.
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