I have been extraordinarily deficient in writing for this blog. I have a bit of catch up to do with trips to Oman, Dubai and Tunis, as well as a Baby Stooks update (9 weeks to go!), but in the meantime I felt it more fitting to weigh in on a tragedy that occurred in Doha recently.
On the morning of May 28th one of my neighbors posted several photos to our compound’s Facebook page to indicate that the largest mall in Doha was on fire. There were photos of smoke and people milling about, still shopping. Apparently there was little indication for evacuation or distress. As we do not receive any local Qatar news TV in our compound here, I checked around on the 3 local English newspaper websites for news and saw nothing, but Twitter was bursting with news and photos of the tragedy as it unfolded. I primarily use Twitter just to post outgoing messages for work but I follow a ton of Doha-oriented Tweeters and businesses.
The gist of the scenario is that emergency personnel responded within 8 minutes, but it took 30 minutes for them to be alerted that there was a “drop and shop” style nursery in the middle of the mall. By that time the smoke/heat was too intense for responders to reach the nursery. The nursery was also oddly located – I had passed by it many times. Just a small door-width entry leading down a corridor that apparently then led up stairs to a second story nursery. The mall entrance was their only exit and apparently the stairs collapsed leaving the children trapped. Responders tried to rescue the children by breaking through the roof but it was too late. 19 perished from smoke asphyxiation including 13 children, 4 teachers and 2 firefighters. Furthermore, no one involved was Qatari – over 10 nationalities were affected and horribly two families lost 3 children… a Spanish family lost three children and a New Zealand family lost their triplets. A toddler visiting from Atlanta was also killed.
The community has been besides themselves. Reading the papers online every day is an opportunity to read what the previous day’s developments have been. Several have been arrested. Many are looking to point blame and punish those responsible. For me, this whole incident has me wrought with questions. In a mall popular with expats, many with kids, did no brave soul in the mall at the time who knew of the nursery attempt to evacuate these kids or alert them as to what was going on? Did no one that called 999 (911 equivalent) to report the incident mention that children might be trapped? What would I have done if I were at the mall? Rescued myself or sprung into action to help people evacuate? There seem to be so few eyewitness accounts at this time and I am desperate to hear those stories… that people pleaded with the teachers to evacuate the kids and they refused to go… that they tried to get to the daycare and the smoke was too intense… anything. For now it seems people left the situation entirely in the hands of emergency responders and something just seems so wrong about that.
One of the best write-ups I've seen on the tragedy comes from the UAE's The National.
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