Fire last night ripped through a five star Address Downtown hotel just yards from where tens of thousands were preparing to see the New Year in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The flames ran up at least 40 storeys of the exclusive hotel
The hotel is just across a lake from the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building
It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze
Dubai is a haven for rich Nigerians. It is the place where most of them spend holidays. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is currently holidaying in the city.
Burning debris rained down from the building as firetrucks raced to the scene. No one was killed, according to the authorities but 16 people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
Ali Al Mutawa, of Dubai’s Civil Defence, told 7Days UAE: “We have controlled 65 per cent of the fire in the hotel and no casualties have been seen so far after evacuating the hotel.’
The fire, which is only on the outside of the building,started on the 20th floor.
Tom Stroud, 35, an eyewitness who is on holiday in Dubai, said: “There was no bang or bomb-like sound; we just looked over and saw an inferno.
“It gathered speed extremely quickly.”
“It’s gotten so much bigger in five minutes. It’s gone from just a small fire at the foot of the building and now it’s shooting up the middle and the top.’
The hotel is just moments from where the city was about to celebrate the start of 2016.
The city was planning on three spectacular displays, beginning at the Burj Khalifa, which organisers said was fitted with 400,000 LED lights. They said 1.6 tons of fireworks would be used in the display.
The Downtown is just across a lake from the Burj Khalifa, facing each other.
Many people will have been in their rooms, ready and waiting for the spectacular display to begin
From there, the fireworks were to light up the sky around the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab and later down near the Dubai Marina.
It was the second blaze at a Dubai skyscraper last year, after the Marina Torch tower was engulfed in flames in the early hours of February 21.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from one of the world’s tallest residential buildings, as a large blaze ripped through multiple floors of the tower.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, residents could see the external cladding on the corners of the building was charred black and mangled for dozens of floors.
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