Chemical Blaze at Jebel Ali,second in a week at UAE port

The port of Jebel Ali in Dubai, has suffered a major chemical fire, the second major port accident in the UAE in a week. The Chemstore FZCO facility experienced a severe fire, with what appears to be secondary explosions from 4.00 am on Tuesday. News reports suggest that both the fire and the explosion were of considerable size, hurling debris several hundred metres and creating a large cloud over both the port and the Free-Trade Zone, reaching into the City.

The Dubai authorities are stating that there are no poisonous emissions from the facility despite the warehouse being a hazardous chemicals store.

Both the smoke and the fire from the facility, however, were so severe that port workers were evacuated from the area. Vessels were also evacuated from the part of harbour affected, but the Port of Dubai Authorities assert that the port remained open as the Chemstore facility is located at the harbour entrance and away from the main dock facilities.

Chemstore FZCO is the principal hazardous chemical facility in what is a major port. The company is a joint venture between Modern Freight Company and Horizon, which is owned by the Emirates National Oil Company. It is a sizeable facility for a Hazardous chemical warehouse having 8,000sqm of storage space and its loss will be quite serious for UAE's chemical logistics capability.

The Jebel Ali incident comes only a few days after a lubricants fire in the Port of Khalid, in Sharjah, just up the coast from Jebel Ali. On Friday a lubricants warehouse caught fire leading to a severe blaze. This also caused the temporary closure of the port.