Fire guts tobacco warehouse in RAK

Firefighters of the Civil Defence of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) extinguished a fire that erupted on Saturday evening in a 2-storey warehouse that was being used for storing tobacco products and cigarettes. The warehouse was located in a building that included residential apartments.

According to Lieutenant Seed Bakr, officer of the management centre at the civil defence department in RAK, they received a call from the police operations room at 10pm on Saturday reporting the fire. Immediately, a team of firefighters was rushed to the site of the fire. On reaching the spot, they found that a warehouse located on two floors of a building that had residential flats, was on fire. The warehouse stocked huge amounts of tobacco products and cigarettes.

Firstly, the firefighting team evacuated the residential flats, the occupants of which were unaware of the fire, keeping them at a safe distance. They then started to extinguish the fire and succeeded in preventing it from spreading to the neighbouring shops and flats. Initial investigations showed that the reason for the fire, which had resulted in serious material losses from burning tobacco products, was a short circuit. No casualties were reported and the incident was referred to the concerned departments, Lieutenant Bakr added.

In another fire, two firemen suffered from suffocation and weariness as they were taking part in extinguishing a fire that had flared up on Friday in a landfill containing huge amounts of remains and waste in Al Suhaila area of RAK. While one of them was provided first aid on the spot, the other was sent to a hospital for treatment.

The operations room of the civil defence had received a tip-off at 12.25pm on Friday reporting a fire in a waste landfill located near a labourers’ accommodation. Instantly, a firefighting team was rushed to the spot.


The team found that the neighbouring houses were affected by the spreading smoke from the blaze. With the help of municipality staff, they managed to put the fire out using water and foam.