DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The developer of a Dubai skyscraper that caught fire on New Year’s Eve and burned through the city’s annual fireworks display says it will quickly repair the building.
Emaar Properties said Sunday that a team of consultants is already working to repair the damage to the 63-story The Address Downtown tower. Officials also said the building was not fitted with any fireworks for the New Year’s display when it caught fire Thursday night.
An investigation into the cause of the blaze is ongoing. Officials say the blaze injured at least 14 people.
Dubai police also released video footage Sunday showing Sheikh Mansour Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the son of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, working with first responders fighting the blaze as flaming debris dropped around them.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Appears to be a problem throughout the Dubai, buildings clad with insulated aluminum panels, the insulation used is quite flammable. Couple that with some strong winds and any fire can spread quickly. In the US we are getting away from such design, using instead mineral wool insulation with minimal fire and smoke spread. Luckily no injuries in this one. But lots of damage.
They are in constant contact with tRump, right? To make it yuger and (cl)Assier.
I was shocked by how fast the fire spread. I didn’t think this was possible in a modern building.
It’s very possible for sure, but the wind factor really helped the spread, as noted it was a fire at the exterior walls.
And there are plenty of flammable materials in buildings. Any extruded insulation, carpet, mastics, windows treatments, etc., these are all made from petroleum products. Very flammable, look at product data sheets for these things and they always have high flame and smoke spread.
Sprinkler systems can be very effective, but not for an exterior wall.
I doubt wind was a major factor in the fire’s spread. I live in Dubai on the 40th floor of a building where I definitely notice how windy it is or isn’t. New Year’s Eve this year was definitely not at all windy, unusual for this time of year. The lack of a breeze in the hours leading up to midnight was noticed by all of my guests when they stood on the balcony.
Construction standards here leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, everything is made of cement, which somewhat mitigates the fire risk. Still, electrical fires are fairly common. I’ve seen more than one wall outlet flame out during my five years here.
Also, the AP story mentioned “the son” of the Sheikh being one of the first responders. In fact, he is “a son” (the Sheikh has 9 sons in all, one of them recently deceased from a recent heart attack at the age of 33). He’s fathered 14 daughters. The video released by the Dubai police of the son was, in my opinion, calculated PR.