Dubai: A warehouse for cosmetics was gutted while another storing electronic goods was partly damaged in a fire at a major warehousing enclave in Al Ghusais on Wednesday.
According to security personnel on site, the fire started at around 8am at the cosmetics warehouse, but the fire alarm went off at 8.06am.
“As usual I came in around 8am and I was doing my rounds. At 8.06 the alarm went off. Since we have instances of false alarms occasionally, I didn’t call the Civil Defence immediately, but in the next few minutes I saw smoke and by that time the Civil Defence was already alerted through the auto system we have in place,” said a security guard on duty.
Around half a dozen fire trucks were pressed into service to bring the fire under control and the fire was put out at around 12 noon. No casualties have been reported. There was no immediate word on the value of goods damaged.
“Since the fire started early in the morning, there were no workers inside. People were just beginning to come and, thankfully, no one was hurt,” said John, who works in a warehouse inside the Al Mulla warehousing compound that has a total of 187 warehouses.
According to another security guard, who was on duty since early morning, the fire alarm at the warehouse where the fire started didn’t go off. Instead, the alarm from the neighbouring warehouse went off after the smoke entered from the other side.
“I heard the alarm and rushed to the spot. The door of the cosmetics warehouse was on fire and smoke was coming out from the adjoining warehouse as well. We immediately started to put the fire out and within minutes the firefighters arrived,” said a security guard on condition of anonymity.
The owner of the electronics warehouse, which has been partly damaged, and who did not wish to be named, said: “I don’t know how much damage the fire has caused, but I hope it is not much. The firefighters did a commendable job to contain the blaze, otherwise it would have engulfed our entire warehouse.”
Smoke also entered two other warehouses containing rice and garments, but no damage has been reported from these warehouses.
A drone was seen in operation to ascertain the state of the fire apart from and several tanks and cranes that were at work.
The cause of the fire is not known yet.
