CAIRO: Fire broke out on the sixth floor of the popular CityStars mall in Nasr City yesterday, but no causalities were reported.
Several ambulances arrived at the scene shortly after, and eyewitnesses reported a few cases of smoke inhalation. Two women from the mall staff reportedly fainted as they were escorted out of the facility.
Different eye witnesses confirmed that there was no fire alarm in any of the Stars Center buildings.
“I left the conference and went out to take a look. There was a lot of smoke, said Ahmed Kamel who was attending a conference at the Intercontinental CityStars right next door to the mall.
Three of the workers, he said, tried to escape the fire by stepping out onto the window sill.
“It took between 10 to 15 minutes to get a ladder to move them to the floor beneath them, he said.
The fire broke out at about 4 pm. Within an hour, Kamel says, there were at least five fire trucks in the area.
According to the Intercontinental CityStars bell captain who spoke to Kamel, the cause of the fire was an electric short circuit at one of the restaurants on the sixth floor.
But sources working at Star Capital, the business and administrative part of the complex, attributed the fire to wall painting currently taking place on this floor. They said the use of inflammable material, in addition to the absence of safety procedures, had most probably led to the fire.
Shoppers were all evacuated from the mall premises and no one was allowed to enter.
The streets leading to the mall were cordoned off by security and only fire trucks and ambulances were allowed in. Although there was no extraordinary traffic jam in the surrounding area, crowds of people gathered.
Security officers, whose blue uniforms didn’t indicate their affiliation, confiscated many reporters’ cameras, including the one belonging to Daily News Egypt’s reporter. But most were able to get their cameras back.
