JEDDAH, 30 December 2002 — A midnight fire destroyed 60 shops in the Ahdal souk in a poor district of south Jeddah on Saturday, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.
Civil Defense officials estimated the loss at more than SR10 million. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined though an electrical short circuit is given as a plausible explanation. Eight groups of firefighters struggled for hours to contain the fire that had destroyed shops spread over 1,600 square meters. Most of the gutted shops traded in electrical appliances, clothes and carpets that accelerated the fire.
Col. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, director of Jeddah Civil Defense attributed the recurrence of fire accidents in souks in the poor districts to the absence of proper safety arrangements in the buildings which were built over 30 years ago with timber and other easily inflammable materials.
Al-Ghamdi emphasized the need to install warning alarms and fire extinguishers in the buildings in such areas. However, the official warned that safety devices alone would not guarantee the safety of buildings which are built with inflammable materials.
He urged the municipalities and building contractors to strive jointly for the reconstruction of old markets on modern lines using fire-resistant materials.
SPA adds from Dhahran: An accidental fire broke out at the unprocessed water acid reservoir of Saudi Aramco-Shell Refinery in Al-Jubail city on Saturday afternoon.
In a press statement issued yesterday, the refinery management said: “A team of firefighters was able to control the fire in a short time.”
It added that there was no casualties among the employees, noting that the fire had not affected the production process at the refinery.
The statement pointed out that only three percent of the capacity of the reservoir contained unprocessed water acid at the time of the accident.
