Huge blaze destroys Tripoli’s largest supermarket By Libya Herald Reporters. Fire takes complete hold of the supermarket (photo: social media) Fire takes complete hold of the supermarket (Photo: social media) Tripoli, 19 January 2015: Daesh, the Islamic State, has said that it set the fire which devastated Tripoli’s largest supermarket today, in a midday blaze that may yet turn out to have claimed lives. On a social media site associated with the terrorist group, the claim was made that the Souk Attalat Aljaded had been destroyed because it sold items that were considered “haram” – “forbidden” under a fundamentalist version Islamist teaching. The blaze broke out at around 12.40 this afternoon. Initial reports said that seat of the fire was in a ground-floor bakery where it had been triggered by an electrical fault. Indeed pictures on social media appeared to show smoke coming from the high windows of a single storey building, while the rest of the supermarket seemed to be unaffected. A picture seemings showing the first first in a single story building (Photo: social media) A picture seemings showing the first first in a single story building (Photo: social media) However there have also been assertions on social media that the fire began among a pile of rubbish at the back of the building and then again that it had started somewhere on the second floor. A witness who supported this latter theory was quoted as saying that the alarm system had not worked. Staff were yelling for people to get out. It was alleged that as some customers fled, they seized goods and took them out of the store with them. When the Souk Attalat Aljaded was built it the late 1970s, the Qaddafi regime boasted that it was the last word in retail malls. The five-storey building had a sprinkler system which was updated around the turn of the century. It would seem that today the system did not work effectively, if at all. It is being said that the first fire engine did not arrive until half an hour after the emergency call went out. By that time, the blaze, fanned by moderate winds, had taken hold and had turned into an inferno. A video clip shows a singe fire engine spraying an intermittently powerful jet of water at the flames on the ground floor. By the time further fire appliances arrived, the top two floors of the building had already collapsed. Officials have insisted that the only casualty from the fire was a man whose face was burnt. Read more: libyaherald/2015/01/19/huge-blaze-destroys-tripolis-largest-supermarket/#ixzz3POiJLLO6
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 21:03:43 +0000
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