Around 240 families in a highrise tower in Sharjah are suffering without basic amenities for the past five days after a fire damaged the transformer in the building.
Residents complained that power, water and gas supplies to the 24-storey Al Ittihad Tower in Al Qasimiya area are cut after the fire that erupted in the transformer switchboard room on Thursday. Each floor of the tower has 10 flats, occupied by families of various nationalities. Many families have moved to hotels or relatives' houses as they found it impossible to stay in the building in the scorching heat, especially in the fasting month. The occupants include children, elderly people and special needs people, who found it very difficult to evacuate the building when the fire broke out.
Firefighters reached the building and doused the fire on Thursday after they received a call from the tenants. Since then, the power has been disconnected. Some residents said they moved to hotels hoping that the services would be restored soon. But they are disappointed and lost hope in returning to their flats, as the landlord hadn't given any promises about solving the issue. "The building manager didn't even show up or take any step to restore the services," a resident told Khaleej Times.
However, in a letter circulated among the tenants, the building's management apologised to them for what had happened and promised to solve the issue in a short time.
"The only thing the management has done is that they provided a generator to run the elevator, that too only for a few hours a day," residents complained.
Many residents moved to hotels in Sharjah and Dubai and some others got help from their relatives. However, a few tenants who cannot afford to pay for hotels or don't have relatives here, shared money to rent generators. "But we can't run it throughout. We need fuel to run it," said a tenant. Those who managed to move to hotels are also suffering as it is very difficult to afford the expenditure of hotel rent and food.
The tenants said the landlord should give compensation to them to pay for the hotels, as they paid the rents in full till the end of the year. When Khaleej Times tried to contact the manager-in-charge of the building, he didn't answer the calls.
Tenants speak
Dr Anjan Viswas, a resident of the building, said that since the day of the fire, he had been staying in a Sharjah hotel with his family. "It's very difficult to live in the building without power, water and gas in this hot temperature. The hotel room costs Dh350 per day for me and it's going to be difficult to afford if the issue continues for more days. The owner didn't promise us any compensation to pay for the hotel. It is his responsibility to solve the problem and end the suffering of the families."
Alok Sarin, a tenant in the 11th floor of the building, said that it is very difficult to live in the building without basic amenities. "Yesterday, water supply was restored for a few hours and then disconnected. The suffering is continuing and families with children had to go to hotels or relatives. The owner didn't give any satisfactory answer to our queries about when the problem would be solved. The management must pay the hotel rent for all residents, because not all people can afford to stay in hotels. We don't see any move from the management's side to resolve the issue."
Another resident, Khalil Mohammed, said smoke engulfed the building when fire erupted in the transformer room. "We had to undergo a lot of hardships to get out of the building at that time. Those who have children, and people with special needs suffered more. The fire was extinguished within an hour, but that was when our real hardship started. We realised it would be very difficult to go back to sleep in the building, especially as the temperature hit 50 degrees Celsius that day. I took my family to a hotel, but after two days, I decided to check out because the bill was very high. However, I had to move to another hotel room as I found that the children are unable to take the heat. The owner never communicates with us and we don't see any work being done to restore the services."

source: Khaleejtimes