The incident occurred in the Olaya district when a group of three Arab expatriates were trying to remove live cables from a large power transmission station in Riyadh.
As a result of the fire, there was a power failure in some parts of the capital, the police said, recalling that they received the complaint about the fire around 5:46 a.m. on Saturday.
Riyadh Gov. Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz directed the Civil Defense to take immediate action to bring the situation to normalcy by dousing the flames and restoring power in the affected areas. The Civil Defense deployed nine fire trucks, seven rescue teams and a fleet of ambulances to the scene of the fire. They said that one of the three cable thieves died on the spot, while the other two were seriously injured and are currently receiving treatment at a government hospital under police custody.
The body of the two deceased are now in the government morgue in the city.
The police are currently conducting investigations about the theft as well as the cause of the fire which gutted the warehouse. Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects were trying to remove the cable from the main power transmission circuit. The police found metal scissors brought by the suspects to cut the cables. Stolen electric cables fetch the robbers good money as they are sold in the open market.
In September last year, Riyadh police arrested a gang of eight Asian men involved in 30 cases of copper cable theft. The suspects were all Bangladeshi nationals who had successfully stolen copper cables from various transformer stations in areas, such as Shifa, Jarir, Malaz, Sulay, Salehia and Mansourah. These stations belonged to Saudi Consolidated Electric Company, headquartered in the capital.
According to one police officer, two of the eight suspects were found residing in the Kingdom illegally. “They broke into these rooms and stole copper cables which can be easily sold in the local market,” he said.
In June, Riyadh police arrested an 11-member Pakistani gang which stole copper cables from various stores in the industrial areas in the capital. The accused were staying in Riyadh and used to store their stolen goods in a warehouse in the Aqeeq district in the north of Riyadh. Stolen goods included steel rods, electronic devices and refrigerators. The police also found a pair of large steel scissors used for cutting steel bars and copper cables.
