Wednesday, Jan 18, 2017

Dubai

A major fire gutted three warehouses at an industrial enclave in Dubai Investment Park on Wednesday.

According to eyewitness, the fire broke out at a furniture storage unit around 2.45pm and quickly spread to the adjoining facilities.

The Dubai Civil Defence was notified at 2:55pm and eyewitnesses said that the firefighters arrived within five minutes, but by that time the blaze had engulfed three warehouses abetted by strong winds.

The fire was reported to the operations room at 2:55pm, said a spokesperson from Dubai Civil Defence.

“Five firefighting teams worked to control the fire and it was put out by 3:32pm,” he said

He added that the cooling process is ongoing.

Dubai Police tweeted about the fire on its official twitter account @DubaiPoliceHQ saying: “A severe fire accident on Dubai Investments PJSC In Jabel Ali.”

Police and civil defence personnel had cordoned of the roads leading to the warehouses and all the employees working in the enclave were evacuated.

More than half a dozen fire engines battled the blaze for over three hours and managed to contain it from spreading further.

Dozens of people were working in the affected warehouses when the fire broke out, who were forced to scamper out to safety without any injury.

A technician working at a steel fabrication unit, which was also affected, said that he along with his colleagues ran out when they saw the common wall between their warehouse and the furniture unit began to crumble.

“The fire must have started around 2.45pm but were not aware of it initially but when we saw the wall crumbling we realised there is a fire on the other side and we rushed out. Thankfully there was no injury,” said the technician who works for Multi Global LLC.

Though, the extent of damage is not known yet, but it is estimated to be in millions.

An executive working for Multi Global said that there has been extensive damage to all the affected warehouses but it is too early to estimate.

The industrial enclave houses around 200 warehouses.

With inputs from Mary Achkanian, Staff Reporter

By Shafaat Shahbandari Staff Reporter

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