Firemen tackle top-floor apartment blaze

ABU DHABI // Hundreds of onlookers gathered on Electra Street yesterday as firemen tackled a blaze that broke out on the top floor of a 10-storey building behind the KFC restaurant.

Three fire teams managed to bring the blaze under control and prevent it from spreading to more than one apartment. No one was injured and the apartment was empty at the time, Maj Yasser al Qotairi, a spokesman for Abu Dhabi Civil Defence, said.

Shankar Manlimbu, 39, a Bangladeshi messenger who lives on the sixth floor of the building, rushed over as soon as he saw the fire.

He said a group of men, also from Bangladesh, were living inside the flat, although no one was home when the fire broke out at 1pm.

Maj al Qotairi said it was thought a gas cylinder had exploded inside.

Nerissa Barcenilla, 47, a Filipina who works at a dress shop nearby, and who also lives in the apartment block, said she was worried that the fire would spread to the lower floors where she and other Filipinos lived. "I stay on the first floor with my 28-year-old daughter," she said.

The ground floor of the building has a grocery, a men's salon, a typing and photocopying centre, an electronics shop and a cafeteria.

rruiz@thenational.ae