Saudi Arabia: Gold – a major casualty of Jeddah market blaze
The market comprised 255 shops, including 100 gold stores
Cairo: Gold stores at a main market in the Saudi port city of Jeddah are believed to have suffered heavy losses after a fire had swept through the site earlier this week.
It is extremely difficult to tally the amounts of gold that were burnt inside stores at the market because of the blaze, according to a jewellery expert.
“They were exposed to high temperatures that might have melted them,“ said expert Ahmed Al Amudi.
“However, it is possible to rehabilitate the non-molten or damaged quantities by cleaning them,” he told Saudi newspaper Okaz.
Estimating heavy losses wreaked from the fire, he added that the market had nearly 100 gold stores, making the site a major destination in Jeddah for gold hunters.
“The overlap of stores hampers the process of counting the quantities, especially the unique types of diamonds and the so-called antiques, which are expensive. Some of them may reach millions of riyals in value,” he explained.
The expert also expected that some gold, kept inside safes at the time of the fire, probably survived damage or melting, but its amount may be small.
“Moreover, a large number of gold stores do not have insurance due to difficult requirements,” Al Amudi said.
A massive fire erupted early Sunday at the Jeddah International Market, one of the city’s oldest commercial sites. The blaze burnt out a large part of the market and took firefighters nearly 14 hours to extinguish it, authorities said.
Established more than 46 years ago, the market stretches over an area of 22,000 square metres and comprised 255 shops.