DAMASCUS — A fire in a shopping
center in the Syrian capital
Damascus killed at least 11 people early Tuesday,
the interior ministry said, in one of the deadliest blazes of recent years.
اضافة اعلان
Many of those killed were security guards or
other staff on duty overnight in the six-story building, civil defense director
Ahmad Abbas said.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately
clear.
“Eleven people have died as a result of the
fire in the
La Mirada mall, and two people have been rescued,” the interior
ministry said.
The fire caused “extensive material damage”,
it added, ripping through stores that sold clothes, leather goods and cosmetics
— many of which were highly flammable.
“Investigations are underway to determine the
cause of the blaze,” the ministry statement said.
Fires in the Syrian capital are relatively
frequent, some caused by electrical short-circuits, others by unsafe heating.
A 52-year-old witness, who asked to be
identified only by his first name Hani, said the fire broke out at around
3:00am (0100 GMT).
“The fire started on the top floor and
started to spread quickly to other levels,” he said.
Damascus police chief Hussein Jumaa said the
cause of the blaze was likely “internal.”
“The fire spread so fast that the people in
the building couldn’t save themselves,” Jumaa told state television.
‘My
livelihood is gone’
Twenty
fire engines helped douse the blaze, civil defense chief Abbas said.
“It took around four hours for us to bring
the fire under control,” he said, adding that the victims died either of
suffocation or of severe burns.
“They were all guards working at the mall, or
workers on duty,” Abbas added.
Ten of the 11 corpses recovered from the
building were charred beyond recognition, the state SANA news agency reported.
It said seven people were wounded, including
those who suffered smoke inhalation.
An AFP correspondent saw fire trucks
stationed outside the charred facade of the shopping mall, where dozens of
businesses had been destroyed.
“We have asked everyone to stay away from the
area to facilitate civil defense operations,” a fire department official told
AFP on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the
media.
Despite the security cordon, dozens flocked
to the scene, including business owners eager to check on their shops.
One store owner collapsed when he saw the
scale of the damage.
“My livelihood is gone... my money is gone,”
he wailed.
The fire comes a week after a blaze in a
hospital in Syria’s second city of Aleppo killed three people, sparked by an
electrical short-circuit, according to SANA.
In September last year, a firefighter died and two
civilians were injured in a blaze that destroyed a fabric warehouse in the Old
City of Damascus.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
