Hundreds evacuated from Al Wahda Mall as another fire breaks out

A second fire breaks out at Al Wahda Mall in Abu Dhabi forcing police, ambulance staff and firefighters to evacuate hundreds of shoppers from LuLu Hypermarket.

This was the scene earlier in the week when a fire broke out at Al Wadha Mall, just a few days later there were similar scenes yesterday. Fatima Al Marzooqi/ The National

ABU DHABI // Al Wahda Mall’s LuLu Hypermarket was evacuated yesterday after another fire broke out.

Hundreds of people were escorted from the shop in the late afternoon. Firefighters, an ambulance and police arrived at 6pm after security guards started removing shoppers.

The blaze was quickly put out.

“It’s a small fire that happened in the LuLu Hypermarket store, in the clothes section,” said Abdullah Saeed, from Abu Dhabi Police. “No one was hurt but one man was given a wheelchair after he inhaled a lot of smoke.”

Officers sealed off the entrances to the hypermarket’s car park.

“There were a lot of people inside so we evacuated them,” said Mr Saeed. “Their security and health is our priority.”

Hundreds waited outside for at least an hour. Some said they had inhaled a lot of smoke.

“It seems that smoke from the hypermarket fire went into the ventilation system and then spread to the mall,” said Sunil Patel, an Indian shopper who was coughing heavily outside. “People are saying it could have been a short circuit.”

Mohammad, who works at the mall and did not wish to give his last name, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire.

“These incidents can happen anytime,” he said.

The fire is the second in a week at the mall.