VIDEO: Abu Dhabi Yacht Club fire destroys 8 boats

A huge fire at Abu Dhabi Yacht Club has destroyed eight boats, after starting on board two separate vessels

Owners have been left to count the cost this week after a huge Abu Dhabi Yacht Club fire destroyed eight vessels moored in the UAE in the early hours of Monday (March 7).

Footage uploaded to YouTube shows the blaze clearly had two separate sources and spread to six other boats before the affected vessels were towed away from their moorings and extinguished.

Three of the vessels involved are understood to be superyachts measuring over 30m. However, it could have been much worse, with 221 boats and 23 jet skis also moored in the busy marina.

The situation was deemed so serious that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Shaikh Saif Al Nahyan attended the scene to oversee rescue efforts. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, but an investigation has begun.

This marks the third major superyacht fire of 2016, with two vessels going up in flames in the Turkish port of Marmaris on January 4 and a Princess 95 catching fire in Fethiye less than three weeks later.