Dubai firefighters use water jetpacks to avoid city's heavy traffic

A spate of fires in the city has prompted the use of innovative methods of firefighting

Firefighters in Dubai have been given water jetpacks to fight fires from the city’s waterways.

The ‘Dolphin’ device is a jet ski equipped with a jetpack and firehose which allows firefighters to tackle blazes along the city’s extensive shoreline.

Dubai suffers from heavy traffic which response teams have previously had to mitigate before making it to the scene of an emergency.

A firefighter using a jetpack tackles a blaze from above (Dubai Civil Defence)

The city's Civil Defence unit hopes the innovative piece of kit will save a significant amount of time by avoiding the roads altogether.

A video released by the team shows a firefighter heading straight to the scene of the emergency on a jet ski, before strapping into the jetpack which uses water pressure to elevate the firefighter above the blaze.

The firefighter is then seen to tackle the fire with a hose attached to the device.

The waterways also provide an unlimited source of water which is used to propel the device and fight the fire.

Multiple fires in Dubai in recent years have sparked international interest, including a New Year’s Eve blaze that engulfed a 63-storey hotel in 2015.

Rapid growth and insufficient regulation surrounding building materials have been blamed as contributing factors, and Dubai’s Civil Defence is increasingly using cutting-edge technology to prepare for future emergencies.