Fire engulfs sea vessel, guts 104 vehicles

Mahmoud Muhsen, Staff Reporter

A fire broke out in a vessel in the sea off Al Khan beach in Sharjah on Tuesday, gutting 104 vehicles onboard.

According to the official records, the General Directorate of Civil Defence was alerted about the fire late on Tuesday night.

Civil Defence vehicles from the directorate, Samnan, and Al Mina centres rushed to the scene and managed to bring the fire under control. However, the vehicles were completely gutted.

The incident is being further investigated.

In an unrelated incident, the Sharjah Police in cooperation with the Civil Defence teams, managed to control a fire that erupted in an Emirates Transport school bus on Tuesday morning. The children were rescued and transported safely to their school in Kalba.

The bus had reportedly moved at 6am to pick up students from their homes. When it reached Al-Saf area with three students inside it, the driver smelt smoke emitting from the bus’s engine. He stopped the bus immediately and evacuated students and supervisors, post which the bus caught fire.

The city police station was alerted about the incident. They instantly dispatched a Civil Defence brigade that controlled the fire. No casualties were reported, the police confirmed.

In an unrelated incident, the Fujairah Criminal Court recently heard a case in which a domestic worker was charged with arson.

According to the official records, the defendant, who worked in her sponsor’s house, brought a lighter and a flammable liquid on the day of the incident and set fire to a cupboard inside a room of the house, causing the clothes to catch fire.

The sponsor’s wife rushed to the scene after she saw the smoke and informed her husband. The sponsor brought an extinguisher and put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the room. He then called the police, who examined the place and found the tools used in the crime.