Dubai: A cluster of warehouses in Umm Ramool caught fire on Wednesday afternoon, with eyewitnesses saying that as many as four warehouses were damaged.
Five teams of firefighters battled what appeared to be a major industrial blaze, said eyewitnesses.
“We had to move all our cars and park them on the opposite side of the street so they wouldn’t catch fire. Two warehouses have already been gutted by the fire but people have been saying it has spread to as many as four,” said Mohammad, an Egyptian who works at a nearby garage.
Plumes of black and grey smoke could be seen billowing high above the horizon as people living and working in the area adjacent the scene of the fire scrambled to safety away from the fire.
Smoke was so thick that the rolling black clouds be seen from kilometres away. The smoke blanketed the eastern portions of Umm Ramool.
Eyewitnesses said the fire appeared to spread to nearby buildings as people moved their vehicles to safety. Civil Defence received a call for assistance around 2:20pm.
The fire was put under control at 4:20pm and cooling is on going. The fire did not spread and only two warehouses were damaged by the fire.
The warehouses, he said, contained packaging material, such as plastics and cardboard boxes. Authorities said there were no reports of injuries as firefighting efforts were underway.
The blaze follows efforts by Dubai firefighters in recent weeks to douse other large fires including a fire that broke out on three boats in Dubai Creek near Baniyas Street in mid-July.
Firefighters also put out a fire at a residential tower under construction at Queue Point after a series of small explosions were heard in the new community.
There was no word at press time regarding what the warehouses contained or what the principal accelerant was believed to fuel the large blaze.
Earlier this month, Dubai Civil Defence revealed that there was a 23 per cent decrease in fire incidents in Dubai in June and July as compared to the same period in 2014.
Brigadier Ahmad Obaid Al Sayegh, Acting Director of Dubai Civil Defence, said that in June and July 2015, there were a total of 92 fire incidents, of which 86 incidents were minor, three were classified as medium and four were major fires.
He added that four of the fires involved warehouse blazes, of which two were major and two moderate.
One of the two major warehouse incidents involved a facility housing car spare parts while the other involved a facility that stored foodstuff. The two moderate fires broke out in warehouses storing building materials and textiles.
