Fire Engulfs Dubai Hotel on New Year’s Eve
Smoke still billowed from The Address Downtown Hotel this morning, after a fire tore through it on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: Getty Images News/Francois Nel)
A hotel in Dubai is still giving off plumes of smoke this morning after a fire tore through it on New Year’s Eve.
The Address Downtown Hotel is located directly across from the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, where the city’s New Year’s Eve fireworks show takes place, and many guests were assumed to be in their rooms waiting for the show to begin when the hotel went up in flames last night around 9:30 p.m. Dubai time.
About 40 of the tower’s 63 floors were engulfed in the inferno. The cause is being investigated, but early reports have said the blaze began when some room curtains on the 20th floor caught fire.
On Friday night, the hotel tweeted support hot line information for its guests, relocated them to other hotels, and released a statement, saying: “We would like to express our gratitude to the authorities for their immediate and professional support. An investigation is ongoing and details will be provided once they are ascertained. Our top priority is the well-being of our guests and colleagues. We are working around-the-clock to ensure that.”
Still, some who were at the hotel reported chaos — with people climbing over each other to escape, and one man forced to carry his disabled mother on his back. Another man, a photographer who has not given out his name, was stuck on a balcony when the fire began. Fearing suffocation if he stayed where he was, he tied himself to the rope of a window-cleaning platform and stepped off the balcony. A half hour later, he was able to get the attention of rescue workers and was safely evacuated.
Smoke and flames poured from the 63-story building that contains residences and The Address Downtown Hotel. (Photo: AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
The injury count is still being tallied, with reports claiming between 14 and 60 people injured, and one death, an elderly man who suffered a heart attack.
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