Dubai fire leaves half-a-dozen families homeless

DUBAI: A fire ripped through a villa in the Safa Park area of Dubai on Monday leaving at least half-a-dozen families homeless.

No casualties were reported but the fire gutted the property, leaving the residents with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"Everything is now gone, everything is lost," said shocked Sugath Arakoda, whose two-room home was reduced to ashes by the blaze. "This is the worst start to our Ramadan possible," added the Sri Lankan, who lived in the villa with his wife and two children.

The compound is home to several villas, which in turn house several families each. Sri Lankans, Indians and Filipinos have all lived together in these villas for years. Many of the villas are split to house multiple tenants and may home as many as 20 families.

According to residents, the fire started at around 10 a.m. in the home of a Filipino family. The cause of the fire could have been flames from the cooker as lunch was being made, residents of the villas speculated. Within minutes the fire spread to the other homes and by the time firefighters reached the location, it had already ripped through six homes destroying TVs, clothes, furniture and other valuable items.

"I will have to move out of this house since there is nothing really left of it. But we still don't know where we are going.

I never imagined we would wake up one day and find that we are homeless," said Denver Kramer, another Sri Lankan, who lived in the villa with his wife. The firefighting team took an hour to control the flames, but the smoke continued to billow from the premises for some time after the fire was doused. Several residents told 7DAYS they were upset with the property agents for trying to squeeze more and more families into the compound.

"The compound is now overcrowded with families. There are so many people living in this small area that it is not surprising that a fire started here," complained one Indian family.

The worst affected however were the Sri Lankan families, who were living close to the source of the fire. The Consul General of Sri Lanka in Dubai, Wasantha Senanayake, visited the residents and promised them help yesterday.