Yacht and speedboat destroyed by fire in front of Marina Mall

The yacht Riva burns in front of Marina Mall.

ABU DHABI // A Dh800,000 yacht and a Dh200,000 speedboat docked near Marina Mall were destroyed by a fire yesterday. The blaze started in the engine room of a US-made yacht, Riva, at 7:40am, according to an official at the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club, who declined to be named. Abu Dhabi police said there were no injuries. "There was one person on board, and he smelled something burning, so he went to the engine room and as soon as he opened the door the flame jumped, so he jumped out of the yacht onto the deck," he said.

The fire continued to consume the yacht and spread across to the speedboat docked next to it, until the Civil Defence arrived 20 minutes later. "It was a big fire. It took Civil Defence two hours to stop it," the official said. Meanwhile, another fire erupted yesterday morning in 16 caravans housing labourers yesterday in Al Faya area of Abu Dhabi on the truck road to Dubai. Col Mohammed al Nuaimi, the acting director of emergency and public safety for Abu Dhabi Police, said the rescue teams hurried to contain the fire, fearing it would reach a nearby petrol station, and evacuated the surrounding area as a precaution.

He called on businesses to provide safe accommodation for their workers. "Contractors should provide residences for their workers at the [areas] that were built for that purpose and not in wooden caravans for their safety. Especially not in the summer when everybody uses air-conditioning for long periods, which sometimes results in fires due to poor quality electrical wires," said Col al Nuaimi. There was no one in the caravans at the time of the fire.

Police said investigations into the causes of both fires were ongoing. @Email:[e-mail]