Fires are not an extraordinary occurrence. Sometimes accidents happen and a fire starts in a rental property. If a landlord has installed smoke alarms and provided his tenants with a fire blanket, fire extinguishers and other fire safety equipment, the chances are good that there will be no significant damage and/or loss of life. But this isn’t necessarily the case in other countries where fire safety legislation is often absent.
Hocus Pocus
In Dubai, for example, landlords seeking insurance compensation for fire damage to their property have been claiming that goblins and angry jinns are responsible for the fire. However, although there are undoubtedly plenty of people who believe in such nonsense, Ahmed Mohammed, a senior fire expert at the Criminal Evidence Department of the Dubai Police, says the practice of blaming supernatural entities for property fires is simply a scam. He insists the fires are more likely to be the result of negligence or criminal activity.
“Fire experts follow scientific methods according to specific rules. There have been cases in which a person or persons tell lies, and make weird claims that a jinn is behind the fire.”
Mohammed says landlords do this because a lot of tenants don’t know how to deal with fires when they start and therefore the damage is a lot greater.
Believe It Or Not…
In the UK, jinns (also known as genies) only appear in pantomimes, but Arab mythology is full of tales of vengeful spirits. Jinns are believed to be able to influence the actions of humans and in 2014 a Dubai man was granted a divorce after the court believed his assertion that his wife was possessed by a jinn.
