UAE: Death of 4 Asian workers in fire

Legal action will be taken against a real estate company which illegally converted a warehouse into a labour accommodation where four Asian workers were killed in a fire last week, a senior official told Gulf News Wednesday. The companies which took the rooms on rent to house their workers in the illegal building will also face legal action, said Abdul Aziz Hussni Zurub, Division Manager, HSE (Health, safety and environment) at the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City. Three Nepalese and a Bangladeshi were killed at the accommodation of Star Mark Real Estate Company in Mussafah last Thursday morning which had given the rooms on rent to several other companies, according to the municipality official. The real estate company and its executive never answered the phone calls from Gulf News after the incident. The municipal official corrected a previous statement related to the incident. He clarified that fire occurred outside the jurisdiction of Higher Corporation for Specialised Economic Zones — ZonesCorp which governs the areas in Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) in Mussaffah. As Gulf News reported on Tuesday, the official said on Monday that the area was under ZonesCorp, apparently due to certain confusion. The gutted building is situated close to ICAD. Zurub further clarified that the incident occurred in the old industrial area which is still under the jurisdiction of Abu Dhabi municipality. He said the municipality's investigations found that short circuit caused the fire. Rooms were randomly built and there were no fire safety measures such as smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and emergency exits, Zurub said. Penalties He said the municipality will refer the matter to the courts which will decide the penalties against the guilty in accordance with the law. Zurub said municipality's Tawtheeq System, a recently launched municipal project for registering leasable properties, will help stop such tragedies. Illegal buildings cannot be registered in the system so will easily be detected. When all labour accommodations will be moved to designated accommodations built by Zonescorp, there will be no safety issues, he added. Lieutenant Ali Al Yafi at the Civil Defence Department told Gulf News that the conversion of one type of building to another without checking with the Civil Defence is illegal. Primary focus: Families of those killed The four Asian workers killed in the fire belonged to Costain Abu Dhabi Company, worked on some major oil and gas projects. The company is in close contact with the families of all four employees and primary focus is to support the families of the deceased, and to provide all assistance for the repatriation of the bodies to their home countries, Costain's London office said in a emailed statement to Gulf News. After the incident, Costain immediately removed all remaining employees from the Star Mark Camp to alternative accommodation in Abu Dhabi, it said. However, the company did not answer questions whether it was aware that the accommodation was illegal and about possible compensation to the deceased employees.