Firefighters
managed to bring under control within three hours a blaze that ravaged
a chemical storage depot at Jebel Ali Port in Dubai early yesterday.
Although the fire triggered explosions and sent thick smoke billowing
into the sky, there were no casualties.
The
fire did not disrupt shipping because it was not near the quays of
the port. A police officer at the port said the cause of the fire
was not immediately known and the extent of the damage was currently
being investigated. Brig. Rashid Thani Al-Matroushi, director of Dubai
Civil Defense Department, said the fire erupted at the chemical storage
facility spanning 8,000 square meters.
“The
firefighting teams doused the flames after the fire began in the center
of the store,” he said. “Nearby fire hydrants helped in
extinguishing the fire. There were explosions, sending debris up to
300 meters in the air. The depot stored about 25,000 barrels of combustible
material and bags of chemical powder.”
A
statement from the Civil Defense Department said the central operations
room was alerted about the fire at around 4 a.m. “Firefighters
from the centers of Al-Quz, Karama and Jumeira managed to contain
the blaze and prevented it from spreading to nearby sites by 7.15
a.m.,” the statement explained.
Eyewitnesses
said that firefighters were trying to put out the blaze until midday
yesterday. “I work in the Jebel Ali Free Zone and on my way
to the office around 7 a.m. I saw thick smoke,” said A.A. Rahman.
“My
office is at one-and-a-half kilometers to this site in Jebel Ali and
we had a clear view through our office window. We could see thick
black smoke coming from the site until 11.30 a.m. But by around 1
p.m. it was clear,” said Abdul Nasir, an employee at Jebel Ali
Port.
The
Jebel Ali Free Zone provides warehousing and distribution facilities
to thousands of international and local companies. The port has the
UAE’s second biggest oil refinery. “The refinery operations
were not affected,” said a spokesman for Emirates National Oil
Company, which runs the 120,000-barrels per day facility.
Meanwhile,
Ahmed Abdul Hussain, the director of Dubai’s Environment, Health
and Safety Regulatory Authority said there was no noticeable environmental
damage. “The air quality and toxicity levels are being monitored.
There is no cause for alarm,” Hussain said.
After
a thorough analysis of samples from plumes of thick black smoke sent
into the sky following the fire outbreak, no noxious elements were
found and work resumed in the afternoon. The suspension of the operations
did not affect cargo handling services at the port.
This
is the second fire to hit a UAE port in recent weeks. On Aug. 18,
Sharjah’s Port Khalid was closed for seven hours after a fire
at a lubricants warehouse. The Emirates Lube Oil Company whose warehouse
was reduced to ashes at Port Khalid on that day, lost over 300 million
dirhams. There were no casualties.
After
the Port Khalid fire, the UAE Interior Ministry had announced that
businesses in the country which do not maintain adequate fire safety
standards would be forced to pay the cost of putting out any blazes
that occur on their premises.
