Fire at UAE port's chemical depot put out

By Ola Galal

DUBAI (Reuters) - Fire-fighters extinguished a blaze that tore through a chemical storage depot at Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, the second fire in two weeks at a cargo port in the Gulf Arab oil exporter.

"The fire is under control although it started in the middle of the 8,000 square metre depot used to store chemicals," said Rashid al-Matrooshi, head of administration at the Dubai Civil Defence Department.

There were no casualties and shipping was not disrupted.

It was not clear what caused the blaze, which broke out at 4.00 a.m. (1 a.m. BST), enveloping parts of Dubai in black smoke.

"There were explosions, sending debris up to 300 metres (yards) in the air," Matrooshi said.

The port is regularly visited by U.S. navy vessels, but none were affected by Monday's fire.

"According to our schedule, there are no U.S. aircraft carriers there," Lieutenant John Gay of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet told Reuters from Bahrain.

"No coalition ships were in danger of the fire."