UAE: Fire triggers blasts in major port

Blasts ripped through a chemical storage depot at Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates on Monday after the second fire in two weeks at a cargo port in the country, officials said. There were no casualties and the fire had not disrupted shipping because it broke out near the entrance to Jebel Ali, the busiest container port in the Middle East.

“There were explosions, sending debris up to 300 metres in the air,” said Rashid al-Matrooshi, head of administration at the Dubai Civil Defence Department. The depot stored some 25,000 barrels of combustible material and bags of chemical powder, said Matrooshi, according to Reuters. Firefighters were battling the blaze, which broke out at 4 a.m.

Jebel Ali port is situated in Dubai. Parts of Dubai were enveloped in black smoke from the fire.

The port has the UAE’s second biggest oil refinery. “There has been no effect on the refinery operations,” said a spokesman for Emirates National Oil Company.

Al Bawaba