Fire breaks out at Mall of Qatar

The under-construction Mall of Qatar experienced a “small fire” yesterday, but there were no injuries or damage, the shopping center has said.

This is at least the second fire to break out at MOQ in the past six months.

In April, a much-larger blaze took hours for Civil Defense to put out.

At the time, MOQ said that its 14,000 laborers and staff were safely evacuated during the blaze, and that an investigation was underway.

December launch

When it opens, MOQ will have over 500 shops, including 100 food and beverage outlets.

But getting all these businesses ready to open has taken time. The mall has pushed back its opening date twice so far this year, first from August to October.

Then earlier this month, officials set a new December launch date to ensure more “key offerings and facilities” would be available.

At the time, they added that the mall had secured its building completion certificate, signaling that construction was finished.

But they did not say whether the necessary Civil Defense permits had been obtained yet.

In its most recent statement about the fire this week, MOQ said the incident occurred at a store that is undergoing fit outs.

It added:

“At Mall of Qatar we have invested in the latest state-of-the-art fire control systems that worked perfectly.

Moreover, our safety and security officers are highly trained to act promptly in emergency situations. On top of this, we follow global best practices when it comes to safety and emergency evacuation procedures.”