Souk Fire Damage

The fires in the souks between Souk al Dira’a and Souk al Asseiri caused a serious drop in customer traffic to an area already hard hit by the current economic situation world-wide. While Qatar claims to be relatively untouched, there are small signs that non-Qatteris living in Qatar are touched, indeed – expats losing jobs, expats going home, and expats not spending a lot of money because they do not feel secure about tomorrow.

We only had to drive around the long block three times before we found a parking spot. Pretty amazing, huh?

I wanted to see how badly the Dar al Thaqafa had been hurt. There was a fire truck nearby, and the fireman said that there had been a smoldering spot. It smelled like a campfire.

Here are some shots of how the area looks today: