| Kuwait residents face risks of hot weather |
| | Sun, 11 Jul 2010 |
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KUWAIT: Kuwait is suffering with the usual high summer heat levels, with many local citizens and residents concerned at the risk of fires and possibly even explosions caused by overheated boilers or cooking gas canisters blowing up. Drivers, meanwhile, are taking extra care in the hot weather, with breakdowns more common due to overheated engines and other problems caused by the extreme summer temperatures.
A number of people are also feeling the effects of the searing climate in other ways, with many being hit by illness exacerbated by constant switching between the extreme heat outdoors and the air-conditioned chill in homes, offices and shops.
One expatriate, Ali Abd Al-Wahab, told the Kuwait Times, "I live in Kuwait by myself without a family. I was hoping, because of the heat, that I'd be able to get out of the country, but unfortunately I couldn't. I'm afraid because of this weather that my car will catch fire - it's an old car and I don't think it will be able to stand this heat until the end of the summer. Every day I check it, fill the radiator with water, check the battery, everything.
Another resident, newlywed Salma Jamal, also found that summer brings extra worries. "Since summer began in Kuwait I've been worried all the time, thinking that something will explode in the house, especially the boiler," she said. "We leave it off most of the summer anyway since the water's very, very hot anyway. Any time I see it on I switch it off because I'm afraid something will happen.
Father-of-five Majed Mohammed is also more concerned than usual because of the summer heat, especially after a recent major blaze. "After the Sawaber building fire, I was shocked; I thought, that might happen with us because we live on the top floor, the sixth floor, and really the air conditioner, even when it's on all the time, doesn't cool us down.
My family and I are sweating all the time; it's made three of my young kids sick for the past month, so I've booked them tickets to travel abroad and spend the summer in a cooler country because I can't ensure that they get better here due to the hot weather; I think the weather's behind some problems in Kuwait.
One local employer, Dalia Alaa, has already suffered a nasty fright caused by the extreme temperatures. "I just bought a new car and because of the hot weather two of the tires blew out while I was driving to visit a friend in the Ahmadi area," she said. "At 10 AM it was that hot, and I think the tar on the road was also really hot, which is why the tires couldn't take the heat.
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