{"id":178405,"date":"2016-01-01T12:11:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T12:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=178405"},"modified":"2016-01-01T12:11:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T12:11:39","slug":"dubai-investigates-cause-of-massive-hotel-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=178405","title":{"rendered":"Dubai investigates cause of massive hotel fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

The authorities in Dubai are trying to find out what caused a spectacular fire to engulf a 63-storey luxury hotel in the city centre on New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n

Firefighters managed to subdue the blaze, but part of the Address Downtown Hotel is still smouldering.<\/p>\n

A BBC reporter says a significant fire is still visible on the 20th floor, where the blaze apparently started.<\/p>\n

The tower was evacuated and 16 people were hurt. But a fireworks show went ahead at the Burj Khalifa tower nearby.<\/p>\n

The Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building and an iconic symbol of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Marcus George in Dubai says streets around the Address Downtown Hotel have been cordoned off, but boulevards around the Burj Khalifa are open.<\/p>\n

\"SmokeImage copyright<\/span>Marcus George, BBC<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
\"SmokeImage copyright<\/span>AP<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
\"SmokeImage copyright<\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
\"SmokeImage copyright<\/span>EPA<\/span><\/span>Image caption<\/span>How the inferno dominated the Dubai skyline at New Year<\/span><\/h6>\n

The fire broke out at about 21:30 local time (17:30 GMT) and appeared to engulf much of the Address Downtown, a five-star hotel and apartment complex, within 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Four teams of firefighters battled the blaze for hours, officials said.<\/p>\n

The Dubai government tweeted<\/a> that 14 people had suffered minor injuries, one moderate injuries and there was one “heart attack case” due to “overcrowding and smoke”.<\/p>\n

Irish singer Anita Williams, who was performing at the hotel, told the BBC that people left in a “stampede”.<\/p>\n

“We left everything. There was debris falling down. It [the fire] just shot up through the entire hotel.<\/p>\n

“Everybody was screaming, everybody was running… I thought: ‘This is a film’.”<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n
\"PeopleImage copyright<\/span>AFP<\/span><\/span>Image caption<\/span>Smoke from the fire could be seen obscuring the view of the illuminated Burj Khalifa ahead of the display<\/span><\/h6>\n
\"FireworksImage copyright<\/span>Reuters<\/span><\/span>Image caption<\/span>The spectacular fireworks display at the Burj Khalifa went ahead despite the nearby blaze<\/span><\/h6>\n

The fireworks display went ahead as smoke continued to billow from the hotel.<\/p>\n

Alternative accommodation would be offered to evacuated guests, the Dubai government said.<\/p>\n

The BBC World Service Middle East editor, Sebastian Usher, says the display is a huge prestige event for Dubai, and authorities want the images that people look back on next year to be of the fireworks – and not of the blaze.<\/p>\n

Tom Stroud, from London, who is staying near to the hotel, said: “It happened so quickly. There was smoke billowing everywhere and people running away.”<\/p>\n

A tourist, Michelle Duque told the BBC: “All of a sudden we saw this huge black plume of black smoke coming between the Khalifa Tower and the hotel.<\/p>\n

“The flames burst out really big and before we knew it the whole of the Address Hotel was covered in orange flames.”<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The authorities in Dubai are trying to find out what caused a spectacular fire to engulf a 63-storey luxury hotel in the city centre on New Year’s Eve. Firefighters managed to subdue the blaze, but part of the Address Downtown Hotel is still smouldering. A BBC reporter says a significant fire is still visible on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}