An unspecified number of guests were evacuated soon after a fire engulfed a hotel in Jeddah’s Azaziya district on 17th July. There was no loss of life or injury and the fire was contained within hours.
Fifty-two of the 80 rooms in the hotel were occupied and the guests from two floors were evacuated safely, said Muhammad Al-Qarni, Deputy Spokesman of the Civil Defence in the Makkah region.
“Fire and Rescue teams were rapidly dispatched along with support equipment to the hotel soon after receiving a call. The fire started in one of the suites on the fourth floor of the 11-story building and Civil Defence firefighters evacuated guests from two floors that were damaged.”
Firefighting operations were complicated when palm trees outside the hotel caught fire and flames from the fronds rapidly reached the building’s upper floors.
Firefighting operations were supervised by the head of the General Directorate of Civil Defense in Jeddah, General Ghazi Al-Ghamdi. An investigation is under way to ascertain the cause of the fire.
The Azaziya neighbourhood is home to many three-star hotels and is not in the vicinity of the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site where millions of pilgrims congregate year-round.
