ABU DHABI // About 10 people were rescued by firemen yesterday morning after their 12-storey apartment building caught fire.
The residents of the building opposite the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank on Sheikh Zayed the First Street became trapped after the blaze broke out on the sixth floor.
The fire, thought to have been caused by a malfunctioning air-conditioning unit, spread quickly and trapped some of the residents on higher floors, forcing some to seek refuge on the roof.
The fire destroyed rooms on the sixth and seventh floors, where afterwards washing could be seen hanging on charred balconies.
"When I went outside, already the smoke was there," said Grace Magbanua, 27, from the Phillipines. Ms Magbanua said she tried to leave the building through the stairwell, but was instead forced to go onto the roof where she spent three hours while the fire was brought under control.
"I was scared," she said.
Large crowds gathered around the building.
Shajahan Mathrancod, the circulation supervisor at Al Khaleej newspaper, was woken up at 10.30am by his building's watchman, who was checking whether there was something burning in his room.
Having found nothing, the watchman checked the adjacent room.
"When [he] opened this, there was thick smoke inside," said Mr Mathrancod.
The fire was brought under control by about 1pm. One man could be seen being examined by paramedics, though the severity of his injuries was unclear.
Meanwhile, residents also evacuated a 15-floor apartment block near the Abu Dhabi Co-operative Society building after a fire there broke out at a similar time.
Officials could not be reached for comment on the cause of either fire.
Police closed Sheikh Zayed the First Street to traffic travelling away from the mall until around noon, while the fires were being brought under control.
The two blazes attracted dozens of emergency vehicles, including technical and quick intervention units, at least one ambulance and a number of police cars.
mchung@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
