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Books – Muhammad Shaban:
The timing indicators pointed to 3pm on Saturday. Repeated screams and wailing, everyone works like a hive, hoping to prevent disaster.
Heavy smoke escapes and flames rise inside a factory and shoe store below a residential tower adjacent to the ring road in the district of Kerdasa, north of Giza.
The workers used 45 fire extinguishers in an attempt to control the fire. At two hours and 45 minutes, the attempts ended in failure, so the alternative option came to call the emergency police.
The rescue operations room notified civil protection officials in Giza about a major fire at that industrial facility. Major General Hisham Sadiq, Director of the General Administration of Civil Protection in Giza, headed to the communication site, leading a force that included 7 fire trucks and 3 strategic tanks with capacity (35, 15 and 8 tons). .
A high-level firefighting team, which included Maj. Gen. Hani Muhammad, Alaa Saeed and Lt. Col. Muhammad Imam, worked to tackle the fire, but the delay in reporting the incident made the task more difficult.
Despite the arrival of support from 4 governorates, the head of the collapsed facilities committee and the professors of the Cairo Community Engineering College recommended stopping the firefighting operation saying: “She will come, she will come.”
A responsible security source said firefighting operations were halted and the presence of civil defense personnel to observe and cool down and prevent the fire from spreading to neighboring properties.
The source indicated that it would wait for the fire to burn itself out. “We will not be able to intervene because the tower collapses at any moment … the fire has eaten the cement.”
In a related context, the police evacuated the houses surrounding the tower, the site of the fire, in order to save lives from the intense smoke escalation.
Firefighting work was halted due to the seriousness of the situation and the possibility of the tower’s collapse due to the fire burning inside and its effect on the concrete columns.
For his part, Major General Ahmed Rashid, Governor of Giza, heard a full explanation from two professors from the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University about what a massive fire consumed the contents of a factory and a shoe store in the background of a residential. tower next to the Giza ring road.
A faculty member from the College of Engineering recommended not continuing the fire suppression process. A discussion took place between them and the civil defense personnel led by Major General Hisham Sadiq, director of the General Administration of Civil Protection in Giza.
The discussion ended with a recommendation to the firefighters, “Do not use water or foam because the mayors are crying” and wait for the conditions to calm down and the temperature inside the accident site.
The head of the facilities commission released a surprise that the tower containing the factory and the store is in violation, highlighting: “When the fire is saved, if the building destroys itself, we will destroy it.”
It turned out that a residential tower includes 108 housing units, 15 of which are inhabited, and were evacuated from their residents to ensure their safety.
The tower in the “basement” contains a shoe factory, and the first and second floors were converted into a warehouse in an area of one thousand meters to which the fire spread without reaching the rest of the floors of the property where it occurred. the fire. It’s located.
It turned out that the factory was in an area of 1,000 square meters, and the fire broke out in the “basement” before the fire moved to the first floor and from there to the second; Due to the presence of highly flammable materials. The inspection suggested that the fire occurred due to a short circuit.
The inspection revealed the owner and manufacturer’s interest in establishing the tower shaft. “I’ve been building for years.” The tower was built on a thousand meter reinforced base, so the first floor was built with reinforced concrete without using a “single brick”, which turned it into a dead end tomb.
The nature of the place, which lacks the means of industrial security, made the task of controlling the fire similar to a suicide operation, so a “Dakkak” was used that only made 4 holes of strength and rigidity of armament.
Shocking scenery and fear of disaster.
The most prominent question on the horizon during the last hours is: “What is the fate of the tower?” His response was particularly shocking to homeowners. As soon as the fire ends, the governorate officials will begin removing the collapsing tower.
The spread of civil defense men and police in the vicinity of the residential tower highlights the situation, especially that the greatest danger is the possibility of it collapsing and falling on the body of the ring road, which is the livelihood of the neighbors from Cairo and Giza.
Last night, a fire broke out in a sixth-floor apartment. The fire did not last long and with it calm returned to the area located on the outskirts of Ring Road.
In the early hours of Monday, conditions in the basement – which includes the factory – have calmed down and the matter has been limited to an escalation of smoke, indicating that the fire has died down.
Moving up to the ground floor, the flames formed separate outposts, marking the end of the fire on that floor. When moving to the first upper floor, it continues to burn without retreating from the intensity of its fire, in addition to the fall of parts of the tower (ceiling – walls).
Regarding what was raised about the “inclination” of the tower, the sources denied the matter, confirming that the walls of the first floor began to fall successively as a result of being severely affected by the fire, especially because the factory does not have a license.
“Tradition of the Emperor of Kochi”
The main suspect in the accident is the owner of both the factory and the property, named “Samir H.”. Many describe him as a “Kuchi copycat legend”.
The man lying in a hospital bed receiving medical attention under strong security measures began his career as a seller of “slippers” in wooden carriages, traveling through streets and squares in search of forming his empire.
Life soon smiled on him and he owned store after store until he decided to sell them all and buy a piece of land overlooking the ring road in the Kerdasa Center area, north of Giza.
The man bet his fortune in the construction of the tower, taking advantage of the basement, the ground floor and the first floor as a warehouse. S&H became famous, the trademark on the high-rise tower and also on the products of its factory.
The self-made man’s dreams of securing a bright future for his children and grandchildren after him evaporated with the outbreak of a massive fire that devoured the contents of the factory and store, but led to the erosion of the columns of concrete of a tower that includes 108 housing units The prices of the apartments range between 400-500 thousand pounds due to its distinguished location.
The tower is waiting for the bullet of mercy, with the fire extinguished, withdrawing it on the recommendation of the head of the committee of mechanical installations of the fall and the professors of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Cairo.
