NAJRAN: Police in Najran said 11 people suffocated and six were injured on Wednesday, in a fire that ripped through a windowless house they shared at a farm.
“Firefighters put out a blaze in an old house lacking windows for ventilation. Eleven people died of asphyxiation, and six others were injured,” in the southern province of Najran, the civil defense said in a tweet.
Those hurt and killed in the blaze were all from India and Bangladesh, the civil defense said.
The region’s governor, Prince Jluwi bin Abdelaziz bin Musaed, ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the fire incident. The governor’s office will be supervising the committee, which will include representatives from the Civil Defense, Municipality and the Ministry of Labor and Social Development.
Prince Jluwi expressed extreme resentment at the absence of control over foreign workers’ residences and the role of field teams of the Civil Defence and the Municipality, reported the Saudi Press Agency, adding that these entities must stop companies renting out buildings which are unfit for living.
In another incident, the civil defense service tackled a blaze that broke out in a farm in Tabuk covering 10,000 square meters. The authorities are investigating the incident, but no one was hurt, Lt. Husam Al-Masoodi, spokesman for the department in Tabuk said.