63-Story Luxury Hotel in Dubai Catches Fire
Joe Cortez December 31, 2015
Authorities are working to discover what caused the Address Hotel in Dubai to catch fire prior to a New Year’s Eve celebration.
Guests of the Address Hotel in downtown Dubai are scrambling to find accommodations after a fire tore through the top floors of the high-end property. The fire broke out around 9:30 p.m. local time, adjacent to one of the sites holding fireworks for planned New Years’ festivities.
People are running away! This is so horrific!!!!! Falling on people’s houses pic.twitter.com/gq9AXEyTJr
— Atieh S (@AtiehS) December 31, 2015
Photos posted to social media and published by RT show flames climbing up the 990-foot tall building, with some up to 20 stories tall. Those who were at the hotel at the time of the outbreak claim they didn’t realize the building was on fire until they saw the flames. “Oh my God … that’s a fire,” Maha Abouelnebin told CNN, after she saw the flames when having dinner with her family at the property. “We decided we needed to get out of there.” The guest told CNN the hotel staff were able to evacuate the building in a quick and efficient manner.
@Address_Hotels Address Hotel Downtown Dubai on fire, I hope there were minimal casualties #Dubai pic.twitter.com/5eil7sqX4z — Nisar Talabany (@NisarT) December 31, 2015
Local authorities tell RT that the Address Hotel was evacuated without incident and no injuries were immediately reported. As a precaution, they have also evacuated a nearby mall to prevent further incidents. An investigation into the cause of the fire has been launched. Despite the fire, the Dubai Media Office posted to Twitter that New Year’s festivities, which include the fireworks displays, will continue as scheduled.
The fire is the second to rip through an occupied Dubai skyscraper in the last year. In February, the Marina Torch building caught fire, with no fatalities reported in the incident.
[Photo: Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters]
