Black char marks could be seen stretching up the building that’s part of a series of towers called 8 Boulevard Walk by Emaar
Dubai: A 35-storey high-rise building here near Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, was the scene of a fire that broke out early on Monday, November 7, an AP report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
Reports of casualties or the extent of damage were not immediately available. which The fire had been extinguished by the time an Associated Press journalist reached the spot.
Only evidence of the fire were black char marks stretching up the building, part of a series of towers called 8 Boulevard Walk by Emaar, the state-backed developer in the emirate.
Neither the Dubai police and civil defence nor Emaar gave any comments about the fire.
A series of fires in tall buildings in skyscraper-studded Dubai in recent years has revived questions about the safety of cladding and other materials used in the country.
According to AP journalist Jon Gambrell, a resident at the 8 Boulevard Walk said the high-rise had cladding that officials planned to replace after a similar blaze tore through an iconic tower on New Year’s Eve in 2015. However, that cladding was not replaced across the entire building.
Dubai Civil Defence authorities later said that all the building’s residents had been safely evacuated without injuries.
The fire which started around 2.30 am, raced up one side of the building, while other sides appeared untouched. The damage appeared particularly intense around the fourth floor. Dubai Civil Defense said it “arrived at the scene five minutes after the operations room was alerted of the fire at 3:11 a.m.”
“A Dubai Civil Defense spokesperson confirmed that Dubai high-rises comply with strict structural and fire safety standards that conform to international codes and regulations,” a later statement from the Dubai Media Office said, without naming the official.
While some types of cladding can be made with fire-resistant material, experts say those that have caught fire in Dubai and elsewhere weren’t designed to meet stricter safety standards
On New Year’s Eve in 2015, a blaze raced through the Address Downtown, one of the most upscale hotels and residences in Dubai near the Burj Khalifa. Some 15 people were injured in the fire and the evacuation.
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