MADINAH: The popular women’s market near Al-Mahad general hospital, which sells ready-made clothes, accessories and other female items, was gutted Wednesday evening, the Civil Defense spokesman Col. Mansour Al-Johani announced.
The spokesman did not reveal the magnitude of material losses but said there were no deaths or injuries and that investigations were ongoing to ascertain what triggered the fire.
The spokesman said two fire extinguishing units, two rescue teams, an ambulance and a number of water tankers were dispatched to the scene and they dealt with the fire professionally. “Only a car parked nearby suffered some damage,” he added.
Al-Johani said the market, which included stalls run by women, was at a distance from neighboring buildings and the fire did not spread to them as the Civil Defense managed to control the spread of the blaze. “By so doing (keeping the fire contained) the losses were kept to the minimum,” he added.
Meanwhile, the spokesman refuted news that the smoke which was seen in Shoran area south of Madinah was caused by volcanic eruptions but resulted from burning residual building and plastic material.
Al-Johani said the Civil Defense monitored the smoke through gas detectors and found that this smoke resulted from fire and not from volcanoes or earthquakes. He said the fire was extinguished.
