Xinhua06/25/2003By [Printer Friendly Version]
KABUL - Heavy smog pervaded the sky of the Afghan capital city on Wednesday morning as a big fire was burning down a large commercial storehouse near downtown Kabul. The blaze began at around 3 a.m. local time when some commodities, mainly cooking oil, caught on fire, a security officer who was on guard at the site told Xinhua.
Firefighters rushed to the site, about three kilometers south of the presidential palace in the city center, soon after the storehouse was on fire, but they could not rein in the raging fire because they had only two fire engines, the officer said.
It is still unclear what had caused the fire, which could finally lead to an estimated loss of 10 million US dollars in various goods, including food supplies, carpets, hardware and electronic appliance.
Local policemen and heavily armed soldiers from the peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) blocked the streets leading to the fuming storehouse in a south Kabul area where most houses were damaged during the civil war in early 1990s.
Lack of firefighting capacity in Afghanistan has become more acute amid increased economic activities as the country is trying to rebuild its war-torn economy after 24 years of war and civil conflicts.
A three-day fire on a similar commercial storehouse in eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad cost some 40 million dollars of damage earlier this year due to the local fire department's failure to control the blaze in time.
