Deadliest fires in the UAE

More than 4,000 fires were reported across the UAE last year, claiming the lives of 95 people and injuring 1,817.

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More than 4,000 fires were reported across the country last year, killing 95 people and injuring 1,817. These are among the worst in recent years.

January 2007

Four construction workers were killed and 67 were injured when a fire engulfed Fortune Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), which was still under construction. One man fell to his death as he was trying to climb down the side of the high-rise building to escape. The labourers had crowded onto the roof to escape the fire, where some were rescued by helicopter.

September 2009

Three children – aged 3,5 and 7 – and their grandmother died from suffocation in Sharjah as fire swept through their house in the Nassiriya area.

December 2009

Two people died and 32 were injured in Abu Dhabi's Tourist Club area after a fire burnt through an eight-storey building in Hamdan Street. It was believed to have started in an electrical room on the ground floor.

May 2010

Two men died in a paint factory fire in Sharjah. Their bodies, which were discovered by employees of the company, National Paints, were not found until two months after the fire.

May 2011

A mother and her son died in a house fire in Al Ain. Her husband tried to save them by ramming the wall down with his car.

June 2011

A mother and her four children were killed in a house fire in Al Ain's Remah district, despite her husband's frantic attempts to save his family.

July 2011

A man was burnt to death inside his parked car when it burst into flames after it was hit from behind by a speeding vehicle on Al Dhaid Road in Sharjah.

August 2011

Four workers were killed in a fire caused by an electrical fault in a two-storey makeshift building in the Mussaffah labour camp in Abu Dhabi.

December 2011

Two men died in a fire in a 15-storey building on the corner of Muroor Road and Al Falah in Abu Dhabi. One of the men died after jumping from the 11th floor in an attempt to escape.

molson@thenational.ae