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1:41 pm
Wednesday 02 December 2020
Books – Muhammad Shaban:
Five thirty in the morning on Wednesday. The reassurance was applied to the headquarters of the General Administration of Civil Protection in Giza in the Bin Sarayat area. The members of the afternoon shift finished performing the Fajr prayer waiting for the end of their “work shift”, but moments which brought with them a completely different scenario.
For a few seconds, the scene was reversed: the firefighters each ran towards their car after hearing the sound of the alarm siren, which signaled the appearance of a fire report in 4 caravans belonging to the October Gardens Authority.
The operating room official was quick to inform Major General Hisham Sadiq, director of the General Administration of Civil Protection in Giza, that he had just finished his contacts. He wore a civil protection suit to accompany the troops.
From Dokki through October, Major General Hisham Sadiq follows the situation, moment by moment, to receive a signal that the October Gardens fire truck has arrived, followed by the car from the wholesale market.
Upon arrival, the department director made a quick inspection of the fire site. 25 caravans were a fixed headquarters for the October Gardens City Authority, which includes the financial and legal departments and medical clinics. Some of them were transferred two months ago to the new headquarters, made up of two buildings (floor, first and second) to the right and left of the caravans, with a car park in the middle.
Major General Hisham Sadiq consulted with his aides, Major General Alaa Al-Saeed and Brigadier General Mohi El-Din Mohamed, to come up with a plan of swift action to avoid major losses that might occur.
The three leaders concluded that the five fire trucks and two strategic water tanks, the first with a capacity of 15 tons and the second with 35 tons, had been used to besiege the flames from all four sides.
The fire started from the middle and spread to the right and left due to the planted brush, and increased due to the charred air conditioning and buffet engines that each “caravan” includes.
The first obstacles that Civil Protection personnel faced were that the caravans were made of wood with lattice roofs, the collapse of the roofs caused the flames of the fire to rise, which complicated things.
Firefighters hired a loader from the October Gardens City Authority to remove these roofs and then control the fire.
Civil defense personnel barely crossed that obstacle until they hit a catastrophe that nearly claimed many lives.
The sounds of successive explosions shook the area, a state of fear and panic dominated the audience, who came from all directions to explore the nature of the fire, which was awakened by the smell of its rising smoke and its strong fire.
One of the officers brought the news to the commander of the Civil Protection Forces “in a batch of gas cylinders.”
58 kitchen cylinders issued by the city authority were placed in the middle of the caravans without being emptied or safely disposed of.
The misconduct and negligence of the city apparatus officials nearly caused a disaster. About 12 cylinders exploded, some of them “no residue or traces of them.”
60 minutes of hard and continuous work that Civil Protection heroes need to control the fire without victims and prevent the fire from spreading to the new buildings and about 5 caravans.
The situation calmed down and everyone got their breath back, and the next phase, “cool down”, began with leadership.
Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Imam and Lieutenant Colonel Amr Hussein.
In conjunction with the arrival of the director of security and the director of the agency, the inspection indicated the truth of the fire, revealing many surprises.
The start of the fire was an electrical crack, according to the official in the operating room of the device, “I was byte here … I went out and found the place, darling.”
The fire did not happen by chance, but happened in miniature about 3 times during the last period. It was found that there was a short circuit due to random connections, especially since all the caravans, the site of the fire, were installed by companies that worked in the construction and contracting of works for the residential areas of the new city, and were left as a gift from their officials to the agency.
Two and a half hours of extinction and cooling of a massive fire in an area of 1,800 meters, in which the men of the civil defense undertake a heroic epic when facing the danger of the fire to fulfill an oath that they swear to protect lives and property, by difficult that is the matter.
Words of thanks and gratitude presented by the Director of the City Authority, Major General Hisham Sadiq and the firefighters for their prompt response and professionalism in handling the report.
At that time, a team from the Public Ministry and forensic evidence arrived to inspect the effects of the fire, while the firefighters prepared to leave the scene of the fire on their way back to their headquarters after 180 minutes before the fire of the “caravans” of the city apparatus.
