Dubai’s Torch Tower goes up in flames
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Police in Dubai have reopened the streets around one of the world’s tallest residential skyscrapers after firefighters put out a blaze that erupted early Friday in the highrise, forcing residents to evacuate in the middle of the night and sending chunks of debris plummeting below.
No major injuries had been reported. A few people were treated for smoke inhalation, according to Dubai’s Gulf News website.
Several residents said the fire broke out just after 1 a.m. at the 87-storey Torch Tower — a more 335-metre residential building in Dubai’s popular waterfront Marina district. The same building had also caught fire just two-and-ahalf years earlier.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known but in the past, such infernos in Dubai have been linked to highly flammable building cladding — as was the devastating June tower fire in London that killed at least 80 people.
“You never think it’s going to happen to you,” said Alireza Aletomeh, a resident of the tower. “I had cash in there, furniture, paintings ... Many things that are very valuable to me.”
Aletomeh said he was coming home after midnight when building security guards told him to remain in the street because a fire had erupted.
He said his roommate grabbed their passports and that it took him more than two hours to come down the stairway because of the rush of people trying to get out. At least one woman passed out in the stairway, Aletomeh said.
More than 40 floors of the building on one side were engulfed in flames as residents looked on from below, many in tears. The firefighters battled the blaze for more than two hours.
Dubai’s Civil Defence announced at about 3:30 a.m. that firefighters had brought the blaze under control.
The skyscraper remained closed to residents, some of whom were moved to a nearby and even taller residential tower while others decided to stay with friends. Officials said they were working on providing shelter for those affected and assessing the damage.
The Torch Tower also caught fire in February 2015; there were also no casualties reported in that blaze.