NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Trapped, scared, rescued
ABU DHABI - JULY 08: No one knew his name. Not even his foreman or his co-workers. Not any of the 73 rescue workers, police or paramedics who were trying to pull him from the hole where he was buried chest-deep in rocks and rubble.
It was his second day on the job, digging to lay pipes five metres below the ground in a dark alley of Khalidiyah just after sunset.
He was one of three people who had been digging deeper and deeper since 9am in the summer heat on Monday.
The men dug around pipes, manholes and large rocks. When they reached the five-metre mark, it was time to go home.
At exactly 7pm, the foreman, Sheer Wahab, stood above the three men who were digging below and signalled for them to come out.
Then something happened.
“It felt like an earthquake,” he said, remembering the shifting ground beneath his feet. He quickly jumped out of the way, screaming for the men to get out. Two of the men looked up and saw the ground caving in on them. They leapt out of the way and escaped, but the new worker could not get out in time.
Rubble and rocks compressed by the large slabs of concrete above caved in and trapped the man against the edge of the trench.
His colleagues kept their distance, afraid that the ground would cave in further.
“We heard him screaming for help,” Mr Wahab said.
The police were called at 7.15pm by a man who was driving by and saw the group panicking. Within seven minutes, the Quick Intervention Response team of the Civil Defence arrived.
One fire truck arrived, then another – four in total – along with a half-dozen police cars and two ambulances.
“His name is not important right now, we just want to make sure he comes out alive and then we can ask him his name,” First Lt Tariq al Ubaidli of the Civil Defence said as he put the police tape around the area.
The once dark and quiet alley was now lit with a dozen floodlights that illuminated the trench from every angle. The red, blue and yellow emergency lights beckoned dozens of neighbours and bystanders to watch from behind the tape.
The digger, who could hardly speak a word of English, could not see any of the efforts being set up to secure his release. With only his shoulders and head peering above the rubble five metres below the ground, he could hear only the sounds of fire trucks and ambulances as they rolled in.
“This is a real challenge because we don’t want more of the ground to cave in,” Lt al Ubaidli told members of the team as they gathered around him. “Extend a ladder from one side to the other,” he told the men as they stretched a metal ladder to sit over the trench.
The temperature cooled, though not significantly. At 37°C it was still hot enough to make the digger prone to dehydration. Before the rescue effort began, Dr Najeb Attalah walked into the trench from the side and measured the man’s heartbeat from his neck. The doctor cleaned sand from the man’s face, gave him some water to drink and told him: “We will bring you out; just stay strong. More water?”
The digger shook his head as the doctor poured water on him to cool him down.
“He is conscious, but he is panicking. He needs to stay hydrated,” Dr Attalah told the rescue team as he retrieved an intravenous solution from the ambulance. Carefully putting the needle in the digger’s neck, Dr Attalah ordered the IV bag to be hung from the ladder above.
The biggest risk was the large rock that seemed to be barely stable just inches from the man’s face. Several of the Emirati rescuers secured the rock from the bottom using two heavy-duty ropes, which were extended to more than a dozen firemen.
The rescuers lowered a hydraulic jack and a large piece of plywood into the trench, inches above the man’s head. A team of Emirati, Turkish, Arabic, German and one Canadian started to dig at the man’s side.
“Pull. Pull,” the men screamed from below as the hydraulic jack squeaked from the pressure of the rock. Firemen tugged at the rope to hold the rock in place.
The rubble and rocks being dug out were placed in metal buckets and handed down a line of rescue workers to be dumped outside the trench.
In energy-sapping humidity, the risk to the rescuers themselves was also great. Several paramedics suffered from dehydration, and water bottles were brought to the exhausted workers.
One of the rescuers collapsed from fatigue as the evening wore on. After re-emerging to the surface, he said: “He was up to his chest when we started, but now he is down to his knees.”
At 11.46pm, nearly five hours after the man was trapped, the rescuers yelled what everyone was waiting for. “Get the stretcher,” the voices cried from below ground, and paramedics then lowered the stretcher with a neck brace.
As the rescuers pulled the digger out, he screamed and fell unconscious. More than a dozen rescuers carefully placed him on the stretcher and carried him out of the trench to thundering applause. Within 30 seconds, the nameless digger was inside an ambulance on his way to hospital.
The heroes mingled, patting each other on the back. The floodlights went off and emergency lights faded. Still, no one knew who the digger was.
Only yesterday did everyone find out Uzul Shaikh’s name. The 28-year-old Bangladeshi labourer, who suffered a broken shoulder, was expected to remain at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City for a week.
Sites fined for ignoring break rules
ABU DHABI - JULY 08: The Ministry of Labour has issued 73 fines for violations of the compulsory midday break at work sites within a week of this year’s rule being introduced.
The regulation, which has been issued annually since 2005 and applies until the end of August, requires employers nationwide to grant construction workers a break from 12.30pm to 3pm.
Under the ministerial decree issued in May, employers must also provide a shaded area for workers to rest in.
The fines were issued last week as a sharp rise in humidity coincided with temperatures reaching their hottest point of the year so far, with highs of 47°C in Abu Dhabi and 49°C in Al Ain.
“We don’t accept any excuses for not complying with the decision,” said Hamid bin Demas, the ministry’s acting director general.
“All excuses are unacceptable, and the regulation is being strictly enforced.”
At the ministry’s weekly meeting with members of the public, dozens of employers pleaded without success for the fines to be revoked.
There are strong penalties for companies caught breaking the regulations. For a first offence the employer is fined Dh10,000 (US$2,725) and is banned from issuing new labour permits for three months. A second offence draws a Dh20,000 fine and a six-month ban and a third a Dh30,000 fine and one-year ban on new permits.
The National reported on the day that this year’s rule went into effect that construction continued through the hottest hours at several sites in Sharjah.
All the sites visited in Abu Dhabi and Dubai had complied with the requirement, although some workers still struggled to find shaded areas to rest.
More than 100 Ministry of Labour inspectors will visit sites across the country during the summer months to ensure that employers are abiding by the rules.
Inspectors found 398 violations last year, a reduction from 617 in 2007.
Mr Demas said the ministry inspected more than 4,600 locations, mostly construction sites, from July 1 until Monday. More than 90 per cent of the locations complied with the regulations.
“Only 1.5 per cent, which is 73 sites, did not comply,” Mr bin Demas said. “The companies should provide a place for rest during the break, and the worker can call us if the company fails to do so.”
The midday break was introduced in 2005 with a four-hour rest period, but this was reduced to two and a half hours the following year. Last year officials said 99 per cent of companies were abiding by the regulations, compared with 75 per cent when the break was first introduced.
Companies may be exempted from the regulation if it is “imperative that work should continue without interruption”.
This includes the laying of asphalt and concrete, and work necessary to prevent public hazards, such as repair of water and electricity supply.
Work for the “smooth flow of traffic and other services” and “any other tasks approved by the director general of the ministry”, are also exempt.
If work must continue through the heat of the day then companies must provide ample water, drinks, on-site first aid and shade and cooling devices.
There is evidence that strict enforcement of the breaks is having a positive impact.
In Ras al Khaimah, the number of labourers struck by heat exhaustion has halved, according to officials at Saqr Hospital and the emirate’s Ministry of Labour office.
“There are much less than at this time last year,” said Dr Yousuf al Tair, the head of emergency at Saqr Hospital. “I can say the reduction is around 50 or 60 per cent. Last year from May to September there were around 180 cases and around 90 per cent were labourers. This year is quite good and only a few cases have reached emergency; 90 per cent of cases are quite simple.”
Only two cases of heat exhaustion were reported last week, despite the hot and humid weather, Dr al Tair said.
“Now everyone knows the meaning of heat exhaustion and heat stroke,” he said. “Secondly, because of the law, they have stopped working under the sun.”
The RAK Ministry of Labour office says about 10 violations of the rules were filed during the first week of July.
Saeed al Neaimi, the manager of the RAK office, said: “We feel that companies have followed the rules and it is better than last year. Last year there were more than 20 cases. A lot of people last year were in the hospital.”