A massive explosion erupted on a container ship anchored in Dubai, Sea port Jebel Ali, one of the world’s largest ports late Wednesday, sending shock waves across the commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates.
The blaze bellowed up into the night skys in large flames and black thick smokes from a vessel at the International Shipping hub, Jebel Ali Port, the busiest in the Middle East that sits on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula.
Jebel Ali is one of the largest man-made deep-water harbour in the world, catering as an international hub to the Indian sub-continent, Africa and Asia.
The fire out burst from ship sent shock wave across the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai, causing walls and windows to shake in neighbourhoods as far as 25 kilometers away from the port. Panicked residents from their high-rises were not initially aware of the reasons and was wonder struck from the sudden illumination in the night sky, nevertheless, they were updated soon with news of the blast from the local television news reports. In the meantime, no casualties has been reported until Thursday morning.
It took 2 and half hours for Dubai’s civil defence team to bring the fire under control and to proceed with the cooling process. The details of the vessel the Ship that met with the accident is not fully revealed by the Dubai authorities, expect for the information that this vessel is a small Container vessel with 130 Sea freight containers on board and 14 crew members at the time of the fire outbreak.
It is suspected the blast has occurred from a dry freight container which contained hazardous cargo. It is understood that there were 3 such containers on board the subject vessel. The extent of damage caused to the port area, Equipments and surrounding cargo are yet to be estimated. At the time of this incident there were four large Containerships and many of the world’s largest ships berthed in Jebel Ali Port.
Dubai port Authorities reassured that all safety measures are already in place for all the vessels in port and safety and wellbeing of everyone in port premises engaged port operational activities are assured as always.
