Residents in Dubai’s Torch Tower were evacuated for the second time in as many weeks, when the fire alarms sounded in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Still shaken by the recent fire that ripped up the side of the building in the early hours of Thursday, Aug. 4, people grabbed belongings and headed for the fire escapes, fearful that the vast tower was experiencing a third blaze.
The alarm sounded at about 4.30 a.m. (local time) on this occasion, according to UAE daily The National.
Residents evacuated on Thursday had only recently been allowed to move back in, and it is only those living in lower levels.
Yazen Al-Timimi, a Canadian consultant living on the 22nd floor told the newspaper: “I heard the alarm for about a minute, it then stopped… After what happened the other week I panicked and took some clothes, money and my passport and ran downstairs.
“There were families with babies trying to get out. Everything above the 28th floor is still empty. We thought it was the same thing happening again. Everyone was in panic mode, some were barefoot.”
Fortunately on this occasion it turned out to be a false alarm, and people were allowed to return immediately to their homes.
Repair work on the building is still underway from the first blaze that struck in 2015.
And it was only recently that the building management company responsible for Torch Tower informed its residents that the final repairs had been signed off, when the second fire struck.
Now many residents are discovering that they will be out of pocket because they had not taken out insurance on their possessions and their homes and they are not covered under the building owner’s insurance or that of their individual landlords.

Source: Arab News