JEDDAH, 19 May 2003 — A large plume of black smoke floated across Jeddah at sunset yesterday evening, sending people’s level of anxiety, already high as a result of the Riyadh bombings, even higher.
The fire started at sunset at the Civil Defense Fire and Rescue Training Facility near King Abdul Aziz International Airport and the Makkah Highway. Afterward a fireman at the facility told Arab News: “It’s an intentionally-set fire. We are training to combat aircraft fires.”
The flames, which could be seen as far away as Madinah Road at the foreign airlines terminal exit, caused traffic on the Makkah Highway to come to a halt as drivers stopped their vehicles and climbed out for a better look.
This journalist’s mobile phone rang continuously with calls from several family members and friends within a few minutes of the smoke appearing, asking what the cause was and if there was an explosion preceding the fire, which indicated that the unannounced drill caught many people by surprise.
Some callers could only get through on the mobile network several minutes after the fire ended, complaining that the network was jammed at the time of the fire.
Muhammad Ali, 23, a Saudi air cargo worker, said: “I saw the flames rising from near the airport and didn’t know what it was. I didn’t see or hear an explosion at the airport, so I knew it wasn’t a plane crash, but the first thing I thought of after that was the residential compound near the Saudi Arabian Air Force facility.”
The fire was extinguished four minutes after it began, but the thick cloud of black smoke it caused drifted south across Jeddah, visible until darkness fell.
