POLICE TAKE SAMPLES FROM DUBAI MARINA TOWER FIRE
About 60 people who lived in the building have been moved to a nearby hotel after weekend blaze
Police forensic teams have taken samples from a Dubai Marina tower after a blaze at the weekend.
Officers were at Marina Diamond 2 on Sunday as the investigation into the fire continued.
The blaze led hundreds of tenants to flee the building at about 4am on Saturday.
Junaid Siddiqi, building facilities manager for Marina Diamond 2, said the extent of the damage would become clearer once the authorities finished collecting evidence.
Only five or six of the 260 apartments have been affected by serious fire, smoke and water damage, he said.
“Once the report has been completed, we can then arrange for the repair work to begin, but it will take some time,” he said.
The fire started on the ninth floor of the tower and spread to the 15th.
Roads were closed to traffic to allow the emergency services to contain the blaze. Firefighters extinguished the flames by about 5.30am and continued to dampen the building for several hours.
Residents of the lower, undamaged, floors have been allowed to return to their homes and between 40 and 60 people have been housed in the Tryp by Wyndham hotel in nearby Barsha Heights.
On Sunday, burnt debris was scattered across cars and a car park, while the building was charred on at least eight floors on the marina side.
Investigations to determine the cause of the fire are under way, in a joint effort by the Dubai Police forensics, science and criminology department, Dubai Civil Defence and the municipality.
Several residents told The National they did not hear any fire alarms and first awoke when neighbours banged on their doors. Mr Siddiqi said the alarms did go off.
Dubai Civil Defence said it was looking into the issue.
“All of the fire alarms were activated at the time – the damage is mainly on the balcony areas,” Mr Siddiqi said.
“The fire sprinklers were activated, so there is some water damage as a result of that also. Everything in those areas is wet, with only about five or six apartments seriously affected by the fire itself.
“The civil defence fire pumps were spraying water for around two hours, so it got into the corridors and lift system.
“The top three floors were most critically affected.
“We will get people back into their homes as soon as possible, but we must wait for all the authorities to first do their work.
“People could move back into the apartments that were not damaged quite quickly.”
There have been suggestions that cladding was a contributing factor in several fires across the country in recent years, leading to changes in construction material regulations.
Blazes at residential buildings in Dubai and Sharjah have led to investigations into the use of potentially flammable cladding.
Last year, the authorities in Sharjah said they were looking into the use of flammable cladding, which was banned from use in new buildings in 2017.
The investigation was launched after a major fire at the emirate’s Abbco Tower in May last year.
An electrical fault in a firstfloor apartment sparked a blaze in Zen Tower in Dubai Marina in May 2018.
A Dh20 million ($5.4m) refurbishment followed, with residents allowed back into their apartments almost two years later.