DAMMAM: A cigarette butt is believed to have caused a large fire in the animal feed market in Nairyah, resulting in financial losses estimated at SR120,675, There was no human casualty.

The fire, which broke out at a store adjacent to the main street of the feed market, also extended to another nearby market due to strong winds.

The relevant emergency bodies and Civil Defense brigades headed to the site to begin extinguishing the fire — a process which took four hours.

Mansour Al-Dosari, media spokesman for the Directorate of Civil Defense in the Eastern Province, said: "The fire started in the first section of the market, resulting in the burning of 3,275 bundles of feed, while the fire at a second site resulted in the burning of 3,800 bundles."

Al-Dosari said that the wind speed helped to spread the fire. Preliminary information indicates that the blaze was caused by a cigarette butt from a passer-by.

Regarding the incident, a salesman of the damaged feed bundles said that when he left the site after the end of his daily shift to go to the mosque for prayers, he received many phone calls from workers inside the market who informed him about the fire.

Nairyah feed market, where over 50,000 feed types are on sale, witnessed a similar fire in September, resulting in the burning of 6,500 bundles of fodder, worth SR131,500.

That fire led to the formation of a committee comprising representatives from the province, the police department, Civil Defense and the municipality. The committee came up with several recommendations, including leaving at least a 10 meter space between outlets, putting insulation material between bundles, and raising the feed up off the ground level to try to avoid such fires.