DUBAI, March 26: A massive explosion at a fireworks warehouse sparked a raging fire that spread through warehouses in an industrial zone in Dubai on Wednesday, killing at least two people and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage, officials said.
When the fire first erupted, ambulances and fire engines struggled to the scene through the city’s dense morning rush hour, while helicopters hovered above the ruined warehouse in Dubai’s al-Qouz Industrial Zone.
Heavy winds spread the flames quickly, engulfing at least 20 other warehouses, raising a pall of smoke visible for kilometers.
Five hours later, Dennis Boll, training manager for Quick Intervention Firefighting units, said “the fire was getting worse.” After nightfall, the fire was still raging.
“There was one big explosion and then some small ones,” said Sunber Raj, a laborer from India who was heading to the bus stop to go to work when the explosion shook this city of 1.5 million people. “The fire spread really quickly and the sun disappeared behind terrible smoke.”
The zone includes of warehouses, factories, malls and labour camps that are home to thousands of Asian construction workers. The lack of space between buildings was hampering firefighters’ efforts, the emirate’s Civil Defense said in a statement.
However, firefighters appeared to have the blaze contained to the warehouse section, away from the labour camps and a nearby residential area, which were not evacuated. A mall near the warehouse where the explosion occurred was also not damaged.
Two people were killed and two others hurt in the fire, the Civil Defense said.
“Inappropriate storage of fireworks may have been the cause of the explosion,” it said, underlining that Dubai law prohibits storing fireworks and other explosive materials in industrial areas and housing complexes.
An Emirati Interior Ministry official said the explosion occurred when fireworks were being loaded onto a truck for transport. The fireworks were believed to have been smuggled into the country illegally, and the owner of the warehouse where the fireworks were stored was detained for questioning Wednesday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
The official put the extent of the damage at more than $250 million. Earlier in the day, Youssef Jabbour of Emirates Insurance Association estimated the damage at $150 million.
More than 100 firefighters — coming to the scene from all seven of the emirates that make up the UAE — along with rescuers and medics battled the blaze. “There’s so much smoke we can’t see what’s going on,” said one firefighter, battling the flames.
The smoke cast a pall in the skies over Dubai’s business district, several kilometers away from the blaze, and around the Burj Dubai, billed as the world’s tallest skyscraper, which is still under construction but has become a symbol of Dubai’s huge construction boom in recent years.—AP
DUBAI, March 26: A massive explosion at a fireworks warehouse sparked a raging fire that spread through warehouses in an industrial zone in Dubai on Wednesday, killing at least two people and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage, officials said.
