A fire broke out in a timber waste on vacant land in Al-Khalidiya district in Dammam recently.

Witnesses saw the blaze and informed the Civil Defense which dispatched firefighting teams to the site who worked to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading to nearby stores and buildings.

Residents said that some warehouse owners are careless about public safety and throw waste randomly in vacant plots of land without realizing the dangers of such acts.

“Wood is flammable and wind helps to carry sparks emitting from the flames to nearby buildings which may cause the spread of catastrophic fires,” a citizen present at the site said.

He called on the authorities to impose severe penalties on the offenders. Other citizens demanded that the field teams inspect the site and order the removal of the waste.

Spokesman for the EP Civil Defense, Mansour Al-Dosari, said: “The fire was limited to the waste on the vacant land in Al-Khalidiya but it could have become bigger and engulfed the surrounding area.”