A yacht caught fire in Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed area on Tuesday morning. The fire started at about 9am. The boat was moored along the Corniche on the Mina Zayed side. Black smoke could be seen billowing for a few metres. Onlookers said they heard a big explosion after the boat went up in flames. Abu Dhabi firefighters rushed to the scene. A firefighter, who did not wish to be named, said the Emirati owner of the boat and an Asian worker were sailing when it caught fire. Both were injured, he said. “It seems the worker was adding fuel,” the firefighter said. "He overfilled the tank and it caught fire." The worker was taken to a hospital and the Emirati was treated in an ambulance on site. “We received the call at 9am and at 9.05am civil defence teams started controlling the fire,” he said. “We had difficulty spraying the boat as the hoses can only extend to a limited distance." Firefighters stood onshore on the Corniche to extinguish the fire by spraying water on the boat, 15 metres away, as flames continued to erupt. Two smaller maritime boats and an Abu Dhabi Customs boat manoeuvred the yacht to stop the fire from spreading to other vessels. They pushed it closer to the promenade. “Once it was five metres close, we were able to spray it with foam,” the firefighter said. “It took 20 minutes to put out the fire completely. “We tied the boat to the fence of the promenade and made sure there was no spark left and then proceeded to the cooling process.”
