Tag: disasters

Ghazl el-Mahalla on FIRE!

Posted on By 3arabawy

Fire has broken out at Ghazl el-Mahalla. Textile Factories No. 6, 7, 16 have burnt down!

The fire broke out this morning around 8am. I heard conflicting reports about when it was finally put down. One source said it was over by 9:30am, and the other said it only came under control by 3pm. Luckily no human causalities reported, but the material losses seem to be “big” according to a labor activist in the company. “The fire resulted from electric sparks as the machines were re-started after the holidays. The textile factories of course are full of raw cotton supplies and inflammable materials. Fire spread quickly.”

More later…

UPDATE: Kareem el-Beheiri reports…

The National Theater on FIRE ! حريق بالمسرح القومي

Posted on By 3arabawy

Unbelievable!

The National Theater in Downtown Cairo is on fire, as I’m writing now. Nile News is reporting the fire has broken out in the main hall shortly before iftar. There are ten fire trucks, according to the channel, present in the scene trying to control the situation and prevent the spread of fire.

UPDATE: 6:40pm: Police General Sherif Goma’a told Nile News that the fire was put under control, and there were no human casualties. The extent of material damage is still unknown, according to the General.

UPDATE: 6:57: While General Goma’a suggested the fire might have resulted from electric shortcut, Maher Selim, the Culture Ministry’s Undersecretary is blaming the street vendors and “junkies” who smoke cigarettes on their roof tops!!! A7a!

UPDATE: 7:50: Blogger Kareem el-Beheiri is near the scene. He says the Central Security Forces are cordoning the area.

UPDATE: 8:00: It looks like the army has arrived! Army officers are spotted. Still it’s difficult to determine the number of troops as non-govt newspapers journalists are not allowed into the scene.

UPDATE: 8:10pm: The fire hasn’t ended yet. Two halls have been destroyed, four have been injured. The fire, which has been going on for at least two hours and half, now extended to the second floor and to the neighboring Puppets’ Theater, according to Al-Jazeera.

UPDATE: 8:25: Nasser Nouri of Reuters says he and other photographers were assaulted by the police while trying to photograph the fire.

Those in their 40s+ I speak usually make references to 1977 and increasingly 1981. The Upper House catches fire.. The National Theater follows.. Houses are collapsing in Duweiqa and elsewhere.. Trains are colliding.. Two bread riots this year.. Inflation striking at 25%.. Citizens storming police stations in slums over deaths in custody.. Medical graduates are driving microbuses for a living.. Desperate youths jumping on boats battling sea waves to reach European shores looking for jobs they couldn’t find at home, Workers striking in a fashion unseen since WW2.. There is a general sense of deep frustration, disillusionment, and fury, coupled with withering of fear vis a vis the powers of the state.. We are watching the apocalypse of a rotten regime..