Dubai skyscraper fire smolders into 2016 – Kuwaitis safe

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DUBAI, UAE, Jan 1, (Agencies): A towering inferno that engulfed a 63-story luxury hotel in Dubai on New Year’s Eve still smoldered through the first day of 2016 as firefighters worked to douse its embers on Friday. Authorities said they were still working to determine the cause of the fire that erupted before the city’s fireworks extravaganza and raced through the Address Downtown, one of the most upscale hotels and residences in Dubai. It came after a series of fires striking the towers that provide this megacity its futuristic skyline. No Kuwaiti nationals were harmed in the fire, which erupted Thursday evening at Dubai’s The Address Downtown Hotel, the Kuwaiti Consul General in Dubai Thiyab Al-Rasheedi announced.

In a press statement, Al- Rasheedi hoped safety for all Dubai visitors and the hotel residents. He also lauded huge efforts exerted by the local authorities to deal with the fire in a highlyprofessional way. He urged nationals to call the consulate in case of emergency on phone number +971 56 365 1212. Dubai officials said only 14 people suffered minor injuries in evacuating the building late Thursday night, but the fire raised new questions about building safety for those living in the United Arab Emirates. The Address would have a prime spot for viewing the midnight fireworks display, centered at the nearby Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

The Address boasts a luxury hotel with nearly 200 rooms, along with more than 600 residential units. Rentals of a one-bedroom can run $70,000 a year. The fire started around 9:30 pm Thursday, racing up the sides of the building. Still authorities went ahead with the fireworks show. More than 12 hours later on Friday morning, Dubai firefighters largely watched the fire from the ground, unable at one point to use a water hose on a ladder truck.

They later regained water pressure and resumed spraying the building. Restaurants nearby opened for business, but served limited menus as civil defense officials cut natural gas to the area. By the afternoon, the blaze had largely died down, but small fires were still visible burning through some windows, sending smoke into the air. Dubai Civil Defense said the fire appeared to have started on the 20th floor terrace, according to a statement by the government media office. Witnesses who saw the blaze start said they believed it began on the building’s ground floor.

The Civil Defense said “cooling procedures” were still underway Friday, and that the investigation was underway into the cause. Around 1 million people had been expected to gather around the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to watch the fireworks. Dubai’s economy depends heavily on tourism, and New Year’s is one of the busiest seasons, drawing people from around the world to watch the fireworks that the emirate puts on at the world’s tallest tower, as well as the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab and over a man-made palmshaped island.

Dubai-based Emaar Properties, which built the Burj Khalifa, the Address Downtown and other surrounding developments, declined to immediately answer questions about the fire posed by The Associated Press. It did issue a statement praising authorities “for their immediate and professional support.” “An investigation is ongoing and details will be provided once they are ascertained,” the statement said. Lt Gen Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, also praised first responders to the blaze for “the success of the rescue operation” in comments published by the state-run WAM news agency. But challenges remain as Dubai has faced a series of recent tower fires. In February, a similar blaze spread along the external cladding of Dubai’s 86-story Torch tower, one of the world’s tallest residential buildings. There were no serious casualties in that fire. In October, another fire broke out in a high-rise residential tower in the Emirati city of Sharjah.

Raging
Grasping the edge of a balcony 48 stories from the ground, just metres away from a raging fire, the photographer thought he may not live to see 2016. “One hour, then that’s it, I’m dead,” he thought as he stood on the tiny sill of a balcony in Dubai’s luxury The Address Downtown hotel, attached by a rope to a massive window-cleaning platform.

Not long before, he had entered the balcony with a friend to take photographs of the nearby New Year’s Eve fireworks display for his newspaper. But the night suddenly changed when a huge fire erupted in the hotel below them, engulfing several floors of the huge building in the heart of the skyscraper city. “There’s a fire,” his friend shouted, rushing towards the nearest exit, before the photographer looked out and saw “smoke coming towards the balcony”. Afraid that he would die from suffocation, and unable to see how he could escape, the photographer decided there was only one thing for it: to tie a rope from himself to a window-cleaning platform and hang off the balcony. He rolled out some 30 metres (100 feet) of a heavy-duty cable from a nearby machine used by workers to clean the tower’s windows, attached it to his belt and photographing equipment and stepped off the edge.

The rope “was my saviour”, he told AFP, asking not to be named and explaining that the fire was less than 10 metres away from him at that point.

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