Fire accidents on the rise as summer advances in Qatar
An outer house in a villa compound in New Salata, allegedly with illegally partitioned residential units, was destroyed after it caught fire Saturday afternoon. No casualties were reported.
The occupants of the house, an Indian family, had a lucky escape. The man of the house was not in at the time the fire erupted around 1.30pm, apparently due to a short circuit.
The lady of the house called her husband in panic. He was at work and advised her to rush out of the house with their child and passports to safety. The family was preparing to go home on vacation.
The house was gutted, destroying all their personal belongings, including goods the family had bought to carry home.
A lot of fire accidents have been reported since the beginnig of summer in Qatar this year. On Friday, a two-storey house behind Jaidah Tower in Musherib area occupied by about two dozen single workers was gutted in a fire
On Thursday, a makeshift house in Al Mamoura was also destroyed in a major blaze.
Officials are blaming the municipalities for not monitoring illegally partitioned houses and not taking necessary actions to put a stop to this "dangerous" practice.
Mubarak Fraish, a member of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) from Al Gharrafa, said the municipalities must roll up their sleeves and take strict action against partitioned houses, both villas and apartments.
"Their occupants are risking their lives. It is a serious social problem," he said. To solve the housing shortage, which is leading limited-income families to occupy these makeshift housing units, the CMC has urged the government to allow multi-storey buildings in the sprawling suburbs, such as Muaither, Al Azizya and Al Rayyan, where only two-storey buildings are permitted.
Fraish said that Qatar's water and electricity providers, Kahramaa could easily help the authorities catch illegally partitioned villas and apartments as they know how much water and electricity should be consumed by those living in a particular building and how much is the actual consumption.
The head of Qatari Engineers' Association, Ahmed Jolo, when told about the recent incidents of fire, said the municipalities must tighten monitoring and ensure that buildings comply with safety rules.
Apart from the threat posed to lives by people occupying such homes, people from different cultures living in unsafe and congested places can cause tension.
Real estate expert Ahmed Al Oruqui said people living in illegally partitioned villas were risking their lives and violating the country's laws. "They should at least ensure that such places have fire extinguishers and quality electric wiring so that short circuits don't cause fire," he said. [The Peninsula]
@WT, affording is 1 and avaricious is 2. Its no point blaming the system when we are the root causes, giving a hard time for everyone.'Love of money is the root of all evils'. Spend when we have to, for these necessities. Just making a fortune by staying for decades is not use, by putting the innocent ones into hardships and danger.
"Officials are blaming the municipalities for not monitoring illegally partitioned houses and not taking necessary actions to put a stop to this "dangerous" practice."
This easily done. Take a helicopter and attacha thermal imaging unit. Fly over the area and locate all the places with multiple families.
where we can contact agency here in Doha to report the owner of our villa.. every day our electricity will shutdown for about 2-3 minutes and it will open again,, this might cause problem sooner.. we already asked the owner of the villa however until now they don't take an action
If they did what you suggested half of the expats would have to leave the country because they could not afford to stay here with the unjustified rents.
A strict scrutiny has to be done in family RP's. There are a lot of such incidents when they do not have the required income but still manage to have the RP passed. Instead of giving importance to unnecessary documentation, the major ones are the monthly income and the place of stay. ONLY independent flats should be attested and not villa partitions. There are a lot of agents who promise municipality attestation for a fee, even though it is not an independent apartment. Kahramaa deposit receipt should be made mandatory. Even annual renewals have to adhere to this documentations. Titles and descriptions DO NOT CARRY weight whereas only the revenue as salary and place of stay !! when it comes to calamities like these which put the lives of many at risk.
Well there are two faces of every coin, first Qatar is unable to control hike in rents, which is forcing limited income groups to share villas and apartments , the municipality failed to apply the law and control it , how come the limited income group able to avail family status is another question. Qatar need to implement laws strictly and should take stern action against those landlords or real state agents/Owners for renting such villas and apartment,before the house rent contract is passed the Municipality responsible for area should take a survey of the premises which is being rented, just not pass the law on the paper.