A massive fire broke out at around 2:30 am on Saturday morning on the north side of Al Tayer buliding in the Al Nahda area of Sharjah.

Panic spread among the residents living in the building when fire broke out but they managed to escape unhurt.

But residents fear many pets left behind by them in the 34 floor residential building may not survive the fire.

The reason for the blaze is still unknown.

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Civil defense and police reacted fairly quickly and ambulances, firefighters were quickly dispatched. Cilvil defense team from Ajman also rushed to fire site.

However, the residents say they could not see any of the building management and officials during the whole incident.

Residents said the water to dowse the building fire came only an hour after the fire swathed the building.

Till 9:30 am flames could be seen in some of the floors and smoke billowing out of the building but none of the dozen or so fire tenders were seen doing anything.

The residents, who were stranded outside, were asked by the police to gather at the nearby Al Nahda park and register themselves.

Residents also claim that the water sprinklers or the smoke alarm system were out of service and did not work.

In fact some of the residents tried to put out the fire with the water hose in the building but there was no water there.

Eye witnesses say the fire was almost contained but since there was a delay in dispensing water the situation went out of control.

One of the angry residents said that there have been several fire incidents in Al Nahda area which is crowded with high rise buildings and by now the civil defense should have managed to work out a plan to deal with such situations that have hit Al Tayer building today.

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