DUBAI: Three workers were killed in a fire that gutted a warehouse of a company dealing in advertising materials in Al Quoz, Dubai on Sunday, said Brigadier Rashid Khalifa Al Buffalasa, Assistant General Director of Fire and Rescue at the Civil Defence Department of Dubai.

Brigadier Al Buffalasa said firefighters from five centres rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire which gutted the warehouse and spread to two adjacent ones containing clothes and other items.

Brigadier Buffalasa added that the search and rescue teams found three charred bodies inside the warehouse.

He called for compliance with Civil Defence regulations, to protect lives and property, stressing the necessity to adhere to laws regarding not housing workers in warehouses.

Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police for Criminal Investigation, said the CID teams, teams of the Bur Dubai police station and Criminal Evidence Centre rushed to the scene on receiving the tip-off.

The deceased were transferred to the forensic medicine department and the case’s file was handed over to the competent authorities.

Mansouri pointed out that the owner of the warehouse, an Asian, would be called for interrogation, ruling out any criminal suspicion in the incident.

Four workers, who were with the victims in the warehouse at the time of the fire, were interrogated at Bur Dubai police station. One of the workers revealed that seven employees were sleeping in the warehouse and that when he learnt of the fire, he woke all of them  up. Three of the workers got out with him, but he did not know the whereabouts of the other three.

The worker then reportedly called the Civil Defence and informed that three workers were missing.