12:15 PM
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Written by – Ramadan Younis:
It was approaching twelve midnight, when the noise of Al-Ruwaie Street subsided, the crowds in the “Al-Attaba Market” decreased, and the “mattress” workers began to collect their goods.
The same monotony of a work day that was supposed to be normal, when Mustafa Abu Zeid, in his thirties, began to pack his mattress, close his storeroom, and finish his work, before the monotony of this night turned into noise and screaming with a new fire that brought the residents of Cairo back to the situation of the “Yahud Quarter” fire last week.
From the first moment of the fire that started on the upper floor inside the Ali Barai Building, Mustafa stayed away from the flames because he suffers from chest allergies.
Smoke rose and the fire intensified, quickly spreading to the upper floors of the building, which contained warehouses. The presence of flammable materials helped it spread from one warehouse to another, according to the description of “Alaa,” one of those affected by the fire.
Mustafa worked as a porter in the market when he first came from Upper Egypt about 10 years ago. The nights and years passed with their ups and downs, until he bought a mattress and a bag of clothes to support his family. “Everyone here started from scratch… and those who were harmed are all the owners of the mattresses and the warehouses of the goods,” says an eyewitness.
At two in the morning, as the fire approached Mustafa’s warehouse where they were selling his goods, he risked his life to get out of his warehouse with everything that was valuable and precious.
The seller struggled with death for 30 minutes, seeing nothing but pitch darkness after the electricity was cut off from the street, until the locals carried him out, “hitting his breath.”
Mustafa did not want to go to the hospital and leave his goods, but asked one of the residents to take him to the nearest pharmacy to receive the necessary treatment, before the Civil Protection Forces reinforced him with equipped ambulances in case of suffocation cases.
Before sunrise, after Mustafa suffered from the smoke following the charring of his entire warehouse when the three-story building collapsed on the goods, he was transferred to Sayed Galal Hospital, according to what Alaa, one of the vendors, confirmed, but he died from his injuries. “Mustafa died from suffocation… and he didn’t get to do anything… all the people who were affected were poor.”
In turn, the security services in Cairo arrested the owner of the shoe store that caused the fire in Al-Attaba Market, while he is being referred to the competent investigation authorities in Cairo, to begin investigating with him regarding what happened.
The emergency operations room detected fire coming out of a warehouse in downtown Cairo, and immediately civil defense personnel moved in, accompanied by a number of fire engines, followed by other vehicles.
Legal measures were taken, and the competent prosecution office took over the investigation.