Divine Revelation

It was 10 pm the 3rd of Ramadhan 2006. We did not pay attention to the wailing siren of the fire brigade which was signalling danger and trying to draw our attention to a fire that had broken out somewhere.

A few minutes later the door bell rung and we were told to immediately run downstairs as a fire had broken out on the 9th floor of our 14th floor apartment building in the heart of Sharjah.
The fire started with the curtains catching fire beacause of a short circuit while ironing clothes. The fire alarm system failed, the fire extinguisher turned out to be a piece of junk and the water hose remained dry. The fire quickly spread and the fire brigade was called.

I am a laid back kind of guy and told my wife that she should stay put as I went downstairs to see what the row was all about. Almost all the people in our building had come down and my 11th floor neighbour called me on my mobile enquiring about us. When I told him that the kids were sleeping and I had come down alone he insisted that I go back and get all of them down which I did immediately.

I live on the 4th floor and as I moved a little away from the building I could see flames coming out of the 9th floor window. We stood for sometime in the Lulu department store adjecant to our building with the kids playing merrily oblivious of the gravity of the situation. The store closed at 11 pm and so we had to come out. The building is on the main Arooba street connecting Ajman to Sharjah, and soon the traffic and riot police were on the job trying to control the traffic congestion and the teeming enquisitive and restless crowd which seemed to relish every bit of the drama that was unfolding.

The water hose did not have enough pressure to reach the 9th floor and a multi-ladder was required. That came at nearly 11.15 pm as the fire spread in the other rooms of the flat.
The multi ladder did finally manage to hit the burning embers but it took nearly 2 more
hours to completely douse the raging flames.

Everyone was discussing the incident and blaming the apparent flaws in the fire management system and the unacceptable delay in bringing the fire under control. Neighbours offered each other places to spend the night with immense relief at no loss of life. We spent the night at a friend's place 2 blocks away and we were Alhamdolillah lucky to be able to spend the night at his place who served us sumptous food for Sehri.The thoughts that came to my mind were the very obvious fallability and helplessness of man before God and how it is so easy for Him to turn us into refugees in a matter of minutes.

As I reflect more on the incident I thank Allah for having saved all of us from the fire that could have been fatal, had it spread more than it did and I also thank the authorities who doused the fire and performed their duties as best as they could with the resources at their disposal.
May Allah save us all from the Fire Thank you and God bless.

The above was reported in a local daily.

Posted by Arshad on Monday, September 25, 2006.