RIYADH: A chemical factory in the industrial area in the capital caught fire on Thursday night causing heavy damage to the facility.
“We reached the factory at 9.15 p.m. and it took nearly two hours to douse the flames,” Ahmed Al-Jaffari, Civil Defense spokesman told Arab News yesterday. He said the cause of fire is yet to be ascertained. There was no one inside the factory except the security guards when the fire broke out. The guards informed the Civil Defense of the incident.
It was a chemical and food processing factory, Jaffari said. He said the value of the damage is not known yet. “The owners of the factory have to tell us about the goods and equipment that were inside the 4,000-meter complex which will give an idea of the losses,” Jaffari said.
The spokesman said the main concern of the firefighters was to extinguish the fire immediately because it could spread and engulf the petrol pump that is in the vicinity of the chemical factory. “Had the fire spread to the neighborhood, it would have been terrible,” he added.
