Teams of the Abu Dhabi Police and the Civil Defence at the Ministry of Interior (MoI), working in tandem, controlled a fire that had erupted in a building at Al Musaffah area of Abu Dhabi in the early hours of Sunday.
The 8-floor building’s central gas pipeline had exploded, resulting in two people sustaining injuries. Also, windows of 21 neighboring buildings and 45 vehicles, which were parked in the vicinity, were smashed in the incident.
Director of the external areas police department, who led the firefighting operation, Colonel Sheikh Mohamed Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, said the incident, which was followed up by Lt. General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, had occurred at 3.30am.
The operations room had received a tip-off reporting a loud explosion and a fire in a building located in Musaffah area, he added. Instantly, officials of the civil defence joined police patrols, which were rushed to the building, to extinguish the fire and stop its spread.
While firefighters managed to prevent the flames extending to a larger area, a special task force cordoned off the site to ensure the firefighting operation could go off without any disturbance and also to preserve public safety.
He added that a man and a woman, who were injured in the fire, were rushed to Al Mafraq Hospital after providing them with necessary first aid.
The fire had gutted the building’s ground floor, its parking lots and shops. Firefighting teams, though, prevented the fire from wreaking further damage to other buildings and shops in the area.
The acting director of the Civil Defence in Abu Dhabi said the reason behind the fire was attributed to a leakage in the building’s central gas pipeline, which led to the blast in the gas chamber.
Investigations are underway to pinpoint the source of the fire. The damage caused to the parked cars and neighboring buildings were mostly limited to windows getting smashed as a result of the explosion, he added.
The civil defence official stressed the need to take all preventive and public safety measures in residential buildings by ensuring periodic maintenance, particularly to central gas pipeline systems.