Guard carries grandmother from burning building

DUBAI // A building security guard rescued an 80-year-old woman from her flat today after a fire erupted one storey below, her granddaughter said.

Vikram Singh, a security guard at the Art 4 building in the Tecom area, carried Garda Santos on his shoulders, and rushed her out of her fifth-storey apartment after he was alerted to the fire.

No one was injured in the blaze, a Civil Defence official said.

"As soon as the fire alarm sounded, I rushed to the fourth floor to check if anyone was there," Mr Singh said.

"Then I rushed to the fifth floor and saw the woman looking dizzy and I carried her on my shoulders," he said. "I am still in shock over the whole incident. I broke the glass in the apartments and rushed her out."

Mr Singh, who has been working in Dubai for five years, said this was the second fire in the apartment. The first was a minor incident.

Civil Defence was notified of the fire at around 11.35am on the fourth storey. None of the residents was in the flat that was burning.

The fire started outside a balcony of the flat, according to Civil Defence officials. The balcony was being used as a storage place.

The balcony of the flat above it, on the fifth storey, was also slightly burned by the flames, according to Civil Defence.

It took 25 minutes to extinguish the blaze, Civil Defence said.

Ms Santos, who was visiting her daughter and granddaughter from Portugal, was in the apartment by herself when the incident happened.

"My grandmother smelt something burning. She went outside to the balcony to look and saw it was the floor below," said Nicol Ferreira.

"She was carried out by the security guard. She smelt some of the smoke. She was in shock earlier but is better now. We did a brief check on her and she is okay now. She can't speak a word of English and she arrived only four days ago to spend time with us."

Neighbours helped Ms Santos to the lobby, where she was treated.

There are about 128 flats in the 13-storey building, according to Civil Defence officials. The electricity was cut off after the fire began, and residents were evacuated from the building.

"We don't know how this happened," said one resident.

The exact nature of the fire is being investigated.

pkannan@thenational.ae
aalhaddad@thenational.ae