Fire erupts in Dubai residential tower, officials report no injuries
Jul 20, 2016, 8:44 AM
(Twitter Photo)
(Twitter Photo)
Fire engulfed part of a residential tower in Dubai on Wednesday, as flames “spread like wildfire,” according to a witness.
Smoke filled the skies over the popular Marina district and pieces of the 75-story building’s facade dropped dozens of floors to the sidewalk.
Officials reported everyone inside was safely evacuated.
🆘‼️🏬🔥 Violent fire on #Sulafa tower erupted in #dubaimarina . Partly falling debris from the building on the street. pic.twitter.com/0P8wmQnFdR
— Onlinemagazin (@OnlineMagazin) July 20, 2016
https://twitter.com/7DAYSUAE/status/755769649296449536
The daytime blaze raced through the upper floors of the Sulafa Tower and damaging 30 flights of apartment.
Nora Maki, who lives across the street, said the flames “spread like wildfire” but that firefighters “did an amazing job” of getting it under control.
“It was really scary,” Maki said. “You could hear almost explosions … and there was debris flying around.”
#sulafatower #dubaimarina fire spreading very rapidly ..!!! Nuts !! pic.twitter.com/kXhLJ7kP3a
— Nael Hageali (@NHageali) July 20, 2016
Fire in Sulafa Tower in #DubaiMarina
Story: https://t.co/n5sYbiuSV6
More pictures: https://t.co/31gHsbm9Ni pic.twitter.com/Vod4UB20gB— Khaleej Times (@khaleejtimes) July 20, 2016
It is the latest in a number of skyscraper fires across the United Arab Emirates in recent months. The most prominent was a New Year’s inferno at a 63-story residence near the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa.
Police blamed the fire at the upscale the Address Downtown Dubai building on faulty wiring.
Dubai has vowed to supervise construction crews more strictly and monitor the material used, as well as implement new fire safety regulations.
So far there have been no casualties in those fires.
At least 30,000 buildings in the United Arab Emirates have paneling similar to the kind that safety and construction experts have blamed for the rapid spread of the fires.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
