Thursday, December 31, 2015

Huge Fire Engulfs 63-Storey Dubai Hotel Ahead Of New Year Celebrations Thursday Dec 31,2015

A luxury hotel skyscraper in Dubai was engulfed in flames after a fire broke out Thursday Dec 31,2015, causing an evacuation of a large crowd from the downtown area that had gathered for New Year's Eve.

The Address Downtown caught fire at about 9.30pm Dubai time, with the flames appearing to reach from the ground floor up another 40-or-so storeys of the 63 floor building.

Those who escaped described how people climbed over each other in their rush to escape the burning building.

The fire at the hotel, The Address Downtown Dubai, occurred just hours before a fireworks display was scheduled to take place nearby.

Fourteen people were reported to have suffered minor injuries and another person was moderately injured, the media office of the government of Dubai said on Twitter. One person at the site had a heart attack, it said.

Local officials said that the hotel's guests and staff were evacuated, as were the large crowds that had gathered around the hotel, causing traffic jams as motorists tried to get away from the scene.

It was a very windy evening, and the fire raged through the middle and upper floors of the 63-storey building.

More than an hour after the fire broke out, the government said the blaze was 90 percent under control, although images on television appeared to show that it was continuing to burn.

As four crews of firefighters worked to bring it under control, the government said the New Year's festivities would go on as planned.

At midnight, fireworks were unleashed into the night sky, which was still lit up by the flames from the burning hotel.

Dubai, with a population of 2 million, is the largest city of the United Arab Emirates and has worked to build itself as a major tourist and investment destination.

In 2009, Dubai received a financial bailout from Abu Dhabi, another of the emirates.

The Burj Khalifa, which opened in 2010, was originally named the Burj Dubai but was renamed, after the bailout, in honor of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the emir of Abu Dhabi.