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Dubai: The 29-year-old Filipino machine operator who died in the fire that engulfed over 50 warehouses in Al Quoz often made his colleagues laugh with his many jokes and contagious laughter.
Romilo Olaya a father of a nine-year-old boy who lives with his mother in the town of Pililia in the Philippines would have completed five years this September as an employee of Civil Products, a company located in Al Quoz.
His friends who spoke to Gulf News said that Romilo will be dearly missed especially his laughter.
Rogedson Solas, a long time friend of Romilo, who works as a Quality Assurance Supervisor at the same company will be accompanying Romilo's coffin back home.
Recounting the day when he and his colleagues learnt of Romilo's death, Solas said: "On the majority of the days Romilo comes to work on his bike but on Wednesday, he and a couple of others decided to walk to work in the morning while I hopped on the company bus. The distance between our accommodation and the company is less than 800 metres. Every day we pass by the area where the warehouses are located. We heard a loud explosion and we all ran outside our company to see what had taken place. We saw a plume of thick smoke hanging over the area. We were stunned by the firecrackers exploding.
"I don't recollect who yelled out to us that Romilo is seriously injured. We rushed to the spot but were stopped and not allowed to get closer to the accident site by police. We told them that they are carrying our friend in the ambulance. Then someone informed us that Romilo is dead. The news was later confirmed by the hospital," said Solas.
He said that those accompanying Romilo on that fateful Wednesday to work escaped without a scar.
Debris
"They told us that Romilo was hit by a big block of debris on his back. The news of his death was broken to his family by the Human Resource department of our company but I telephoned his wife and she was crying uncontrollably. The most difficult of all was having to answer her questions on how Romilo died and what injuries he had incurred.
"He had plans for his family. I remember him telling me that he wants to work hard and earn enough so that he builds a new business venture that he was planning for his son's future," Solas said.
Romilo's roommates have been asked to pack his personal belongings, which will accompany his body to his home country.
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