Residents clear their rooftops of junk items

MANY residents of Doha Jadeed have started cleaning up their rooftops after a recent fire that broke out in an under-construction building spread to the other residential buildings in the area recently.

These rooftops had been serving as dumping places for discarded household items for their occupants.

Gulf Times had carried out an extensive report on August 13, 2007 on this topic calling the practice of storing old furniture, and many other used appliances on rooftops and stairways, as a ‘health and safety hazard’.

This week, the fire in the under-construction building spread to nearby residential and commercial buildings due to strong winds and a catastrophe was averted because of the timely intervention of the civil defence personnel.

Among the discarded items found stored on rooftops are used mattresses, cardboard boxes and bed-sets, all of which may catch fire with a spark.

“We learned a harsh lesson. Residents in the area have – proactively – started clearing out the buildings,” said the manager of a restaurant located in the ground floor of a three-storey building.

“Yesterday, trucks from the municipality came and people living in the area took out the old furniture and other stuff, voluntarily, for disposal,” said another resident.

On why they stored the old furniture to begin with, some residents said: “When we move, the furniture occasionally do not fit in the new apartments and we are forced to store it, especially if the apartment is furnished by the owner.”

“There are also virtually no pawn shops dealing in old and used furniture in Qatar anymore. These things cost us our hard-earned money and it is hard to part with them,” one resident noted.

Some residents also called for action on abandoned cars choking the narrow lanes of the densely-populated area. A couple of such vehicles were gutted during the fire incident on Saturday.

Meanwhile, work has resumed at the fire-hit building.

“Only two floors of the total nine remain to be completed,” said a Nepalese worker.

According to an official at the site, all the electric wiring and plumbing work at the building have been “rendered useless and will have to be done again” as a result of the blaze. Fortunately, no one was injured though it took five hours to put out the fire.