Gulf Daily News

Bahrain, Apr 7: Five shops at the Isa Town Furniture Market were destroyed in a suspected arson attack yesterday morning - the sixth fire at the site since January last year.Witnesses said only the "heroic" efforts of firemen stopped the blaze from spreading to other parts of the suq and causing a major disaster.

It took six Civil Defence fire engines and 20 firemen almost an hour and 15 minutes to put out the fire, which caused thousands of dinars worth of damage.

The blaze broke out in the Saifi Furniture shop and spread quickly to four adjacent shops selling household items.

Interior Ministry officials told the GDN it took only a few minutes for two of the shops to burn down, as they were stocked with highly inflammable material such as upholstery, wood and plywood.

Traders yesterday repeated earlier claims that they were deliberately being targeted by arsonists, although this time all the shops affected belong to the same owner.

All naturalised Bahrainis, they said people in the area with "vested interests" were trying to force them out.

Goods worth BD50,000 were reportedly destroyed in an attack in the same area in October last year.

The latest fire was spotted by a Yemeni worker Asad Salah, who was sleeping in the Saifi Furniture Shop, where the fire started at 6am.

Saabir Abdulla confirmed five shops were completely gutted and all were owned by his relative Ahmed Ghuloom.

"There are no witnesses as is it was too early in the day for anyone to be there," he said.

"There is no other way a fire could have started unless it was done on purpose."

Mr Abdulla called upon authorities to introduce overnight police patrols at the market to protect businesses.

"Just security men from a company are not good enough," he said.

"We need real policemen to be here, especially at night to protect our shops from crazy people who do not know what they are doing or the loss that their pranks can cost others.

"If the government cannot protect our property, it should tell us so.

"We can then take steps to protect ourselves."

Deputy Central Governor Mubarak bin Ahmed Al Fadhel, who visited the scene, praised the efforts of the Civil Defence in containing the fire.

Interior Ministry and Civil Def- ence officials said they were still trying to establish the cause of the blaze, but did not rule out arson.

"There are almost no witnesses because it happened so early in the morning. No one was there at the time, except for a worker who was sleeping in the shop where the fire supposedly started," said an Interior Ministry official.

"He alerted the authorities, although he does not know how the fire started.

"We are taking all the issues into the scope of our investigation and questioning the traders in the area.

"We will know more in a few days," he said.