A fire gutted a nine-storey building in Ramses Street on Saturday, injuring 14 and causing millions of pounds worth of damage, reports Maya Madkour The blaze started at about 3pm in a third floor apartment of the building. It quickly spread to upper storeys. Since moving out of the building the apartment's owner, 69-year-old merchant Emad El-Hawari, had used the flat as a storehouse for tyres and car spare parts. The injured were rushed to neighbouring hospitals suffering from burns and respiratory problems. Preliminary investigations suggest the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit. The building, which is being renovated as part of a programme to restore downtown Cairo, had been partially covered in sheets of green plastic which allowed the flames to spread quickly. It took 20 fire engines six hours to put out the blaze. Traffic ground to a halt as Ramses Street was sealed off and vehicles redirected in an attempt to clear a way for firefighters. Gamal El-Deq, a man in his late 50s from Northern Belbeis, said that residents were quickly evacuated from the premises. He had been accompanying his wife to a clinic on the first floor of the building. "It was chaotic. There have been no lights since the fire. When the apartment being used as a storeroom on the third floor caught fire it was a matter of minutes before the fourth and fifth floors were ablaze. It's illegal to use a residential apartment as commercial storage," said the building's visibly distressed doorman. Many among the hundreds who gathered to watch the flames agreed. Even before the fire was extinguished and the investigation begun they seemed to agree that negligence was again to blame for the partial destruction of yet another of Cairo's landmark buildings. Most recently, in August, a fire gutted the historic Shura Council headquarters.
