Three Indian workers die of suffocation in Sharjah

Sharjah - Firefighters rushed to the site in less than five minutes and started dousing the fire.

Three Indian workers were killed after fire destroyed a furniture factory, warehouse and labour accommodation in Kalba on Friday.

All the three died because of suffocation as they were sleeping in their accommodation on Friday morning when the fire erupted.

They were identified as Nisamudheen, Shihabudheen and Husain, hailing from Thirur and Valanchery towns in the Malappuram district of Kerala.

According to an official with the Kalba Civil Defence, Al Wahda furniture factory in Kalba Industrial area was gutted in the incident.

The fire started at the warehouses and quickly spread to the factory and adjacent workers' accommodation due to strong wind and flammable objects, such as wood, foams and chemical liquids, kept inside the warehouse and the factory. Flames and heavy smoke engulfed the area within minutes and continued for hours. Firefighters rushed to the site in less than five minutes and started dousing the fire.

They managed to control the fire in three hours and started cooling operations. The site will be handed over to forensic experts to deter-mine the cause of the fire.

The police cordoned off the road leading to the site to help the fire-fighters extinguish the fire. Bodies of the deceased were shifted to Kalba Hospital.
According to co-workers of the deceased, 13 workers were living in five rooms within the furniture complex. All the three deceased were living in the same room and there was no response from them despite efforts by the others to wake them up.

"We managed to escape by removing the air conditioners as there was no other way to get out from the fire and smoke. We woke up due to severe heat and objects falling from the burning roof," said Noorudeen, salesman of the company. "All of us lost our money, IDs and other documents," he added. The workers also lost their passports kept in the factory.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com (With input from VM Sathish)