Captain, 4 others responsible for ship fire at Jebel Ali Port jailed

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Misdemeanours and Violations Court in Dubai imprisoned an Asian captain and 4 others who owned a ship and shipping companies for mistakenly causing the burning of property of others and incurring them losses of about Dhs24 millions, as containers with various materials were burnt and part of Jebel Ali Port was damaged, besides the damage of loading and unloading machines at the port.

The court sentenced them to one month in jail with a 3-year suspension.

In the same session, the court also convicted 4 shipping companies, one of whom owned the ship, and fined each company Dhs100,000, and referred the case to the competent civil court.

The details of the incident date back to July 2021, when a fire broke out in one of the ships in Jebel Ali in Dubai.

Accordingly, the civil defence teams rushed to the scene and put out the fire in 40 minutes without deaths, but with minor injuries of Asian sailors.

The Dubai Government Media Office had announced at the time that the fire caused the burning of part of the ship in addition to material damage to the berth of the port, and the site of the accident was referred to the competent authorities to conduct investigations.

According to the case file and the report of the forensic lab at Dubai Police, the fire was caused by negligence and failure to adhere to safety procedures, as the cargo shipper did not verify the validity and quality of the used containers and their validity for transporting dangerous materials, as well as keeping containers of dangerous materials under the sun in Jebel Ali Port for 21 days at a temperature of 44°C.

The report also indicated that there were containers containing 640 barrels of dangerous materials, and the failure of the cargo shipper and the ship owners to coordinate with each other regarding the appropriate time for the delivery of containers.

According to the report, the ship’s captain, owners and operators did not register the types of dangerous materials or separate their containers. They also placed them adjacent to each other, which resulted in the explosion of the first container.