Dubai: Fifteen shops, two cars and four rooms were damaged when a fire broke out in a mechanic shops complex in Umm Al Ramool area opposite Dubai Festival City on Tuesday morning.
A Civil Defence spokesperson said they received a call about the fire at 5.58am.
“No one was injured. The fire has been brought under control and the cooling stage started at 8.44am,” he said.
The firefighters were still at the scene when Gulf News visited the Mohammad Al Suwaidi Mechanical Workshop complex at noon. Water was running out of the workshops and the shops affected were filled with black debris.
The leader of the firefighting operation said the fire started at a paint and body workshop in the left corner of the complex, and spread to the right damaging another 14 shops.
“The fire has been completely put out, but we’re here overseeing the cooling process to ensure the fire does not erupt again,” he said.
The two cars that were damaged were inside the shop where the fire started.
Noor Al Deen Nabil, 29, the owner of one of the damaged cars, was at the scene.
“They called me around 11.30am and told me my car was in a fire. I saw it, it was completely charred and so was the shop.” he said.
Nabil had brought the car in for some body work on Sunday. “I was supposed to pick it up yesterday, but it wasn’t ready. It is insured, so it’s okay. I’m happy that no one was hurt and it’s only material damage,” he said.
Teams from Al Rashidiya, Al Ghusais, Al Quoz, Port Saeed and Al Karama fire stations took part in the firefighting efforts.
The manager of the shop where the fire started said someone saw the fire and called him at 6am.
“There was no one in the shop, so, thankfully, no one was injured. The shop is completely damaged, and so were the two cars in the shop,” he said.
He said Civil Defence personnel told him that a short circuit might have caused the fire. The rooms that were damaged where located above the shops.
N.A., who works at one of the other shops, said that he received a call around 6am.
“The shop where the fire started was completely destroyed. Around 70 per cent of our shop was damaged.”
He said that his shop was not insured, and that the majority of the shops in the complex weren’t.
When asked why they did not have insurance, he said, “We have been in business for 25 years and we never thought this would happen. It is the first time anything like this has happened to us.”
A.S., who owns a spare parts shop in the complex, said all spare parts were damaged. “We are also not insured. God willing, we will figure out what to do. We are just leaving it to God now,” he said.
