DUBAI // Two people were killed and one injured after a fire broke out in a one-bedroom apartment in which 22 men lived.
The Dubai Civil Defence received a call at 9.40pm on Monday and went to a third-floor apartment in International City.
By the time Civil Defence’s Al Rashidiya unit arrived, three men had jumped off the balcony to avoid smoke inhalation. Two died in the fall, and the third was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Authorities managed to rescue seven men who were trapped on the balcony. The fire was put out just after 10pm.
Brig Ahmed Obeid Al Sayegh, assistant director of DCD, said the fire started in the kitchen, spread to the living room, where the furniture caught light.
He said 10 men were sleeping in the living room and 12 in the bedroom.
Brig Al Sayegh warned against living in overcrowded apartments, saying that such units are a significant fire and health hazard.
dmoukhallati@thenational.ae
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Nick's journey in numbers
Countries so far: 85
Flights: 149
Steps: 3.78 million
Calories: 220,000
Floors climbed: 2,000
Donations: GPB37,300
Prostate checks: 5
Blisters: 15
Bumps on the head: 2
Dog bites: 1
Company%20profile
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The Transfiguration
Director: Michael O’Shea
Starring: Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine
Three stars
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
