SHARJAH, 20 August 2007 — After a seven-hour closure on Saturday after a major fire, shipping has resumed at Sharjah’s Port Khalid, police and port authorities said yesterday.
Port Khalid was closed for most of the day on Saturday while emergency crews battled overnight to put out the blaze that broke out around 11.22 p.m. on Friday.
“Activity at the port did not stop except for a short period of not more than seven hours ... to facilitate the security forces bringing in the necessary fire-extinguishing equipment,” Rashed Al-Leem, director general of Sharjah’s Hamiriyah Ports, Customs and Duty Free Zone, told the state news agency WAM. “After that, activity returned to what it was before.”
UAE Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Saif ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan, who visited the site on Saturday evening, thanked the emergency services for getting the fire under control before it spread to other areas of the port and said authorities were looking into the incident to prevent it from happening again.
“It was a significant achievement,” said Al-Nahayan.
The minister, who was inspecting the scene of the blaze, called for measures to protect vital premises against such hazards. Al-Nahayan took note of the damages caused by the fire that had gutted a number of depots of the company and caused other structural damages.
3 Killed in Sharjah
Meanwhile, three members of an Emirati family died and three others were injured at a road accident that occurred on Sharjah Airport Road on Saturday afternoon. A 53-old-man, his 21-year-old daughter and his three-year-old son died after the vehicle struck a streetlight. The man’s 41-year-old wife and two other children, aged nine and 14, are being treated in a hospital.
