Authorities are seriously considering shifting gas cylinder shops to locations outside residential districts to ensure resident safety.

The move comes in response to demands by residents who live in close proximity to such shops and who fear potential gas explosions near their homes.

Col. Saeed Sarhan, spokesman of the Civil Defense in the Makkah region, said his department was examining a proposal to transfer shops selling gas cylinders in Jeddah to locations outside urban areas.

“We have received numerous complaints from Jeddah residents demanding such transfers due to concerns from the serious threats these stores pose,” Sarhan told Arab News. “A final decision on the proposal and selection of the appropriate locations will be made in coordination with the Jeddah Municipality and will be announced in due course,” he said.

There are more than 500 gas shops in Jeddah. The presence of such shops inside residential neighborhoods still remains a cause of great concern for many residents in the city. In addition, the noise pollution generated while throwing these gas cylinders on the ground continues to be a source of irritation and discomfort for residents.

Khaled Matrafi, a resident of the Al-Marwah neighborhood, supported to the move. Matrafi, whose home is adjacent to a cylinder shop, says the unimaginable chaos and noise associated with people passing through to change their gas cylinders every day has become too much to bear.

Work at this particular shop begins at 8 a.m. and continues without interruption, with the exception of prayer times, until 11 p.m., he said.

Matrafi is one of several residents, including Hussein Omari, a resident of Al-Rawabi neighborhood in Jeddah, who is calling for transferring these shops to farther locations, such as the Jeddah-Makkah highway, where they would be far from residential areas but still accessible.

Omari says these shops pose a threat, especially to children playing near these shops. Omari and his family had barely survived a gas pipeline blast about three years ago.

“The explosion originated at one of the gas shops,” he said. “The disaster would have cost the lives of the entire neighborhood were it not for the quick intervention of the Civil Defense.”