A photographer spent 30 minutes dangling from a rope on the 48th floor of the hotel. Picture: AFP/AHMAD FARWAN
A PHOTOGRAPHER has told of a harrowing 30 minutes he spent trapped on a ledge metres from the raging inferno that engulfed a skyscraper in Dubai on New Year’s Eve, as security officials investigate the cause of the blaze.
The newspaper photographer, who didn’t want to be named, was on the 48th floor of the building to take pictures of fireworks when the fire erupted and he became trapped.
Unable to escape and afraid he would die of suffocation, he rolled out some 30 metres of heavy-duty cable from a nearby machine used by workers to clean the tower’s windows, attached it to his belt and stepped off the balcony onto a narrow ledge.
“One hour, then that’s it, I’m dead,” he thought as he stood there. He was eventually saved by rescue workers after calling and texting colleagues asking for help.
Meanwhile, Dubai security boss General Dahi Khalfan tweeted a picture of the building taken by a police photograher saying “this is where the search begins.”
مصور جنائي لشرطة دبي يلتقط بداية الحريق بعدسة كاميرته..من هنا يبدأ البحث. http://pic.twitter.com/5MojgyVOoi
— ضاحي خلفان تميم (@Dhahi_Khalfan) January 1, 2016
The building was still smoking on Friday. Picture: Francois Nel/Getty Images.Source:Getty Images
‘PEOPLE SHOVING EACH OTHER’
Guests inside the 63-storey luxury Address Downtown hotel have described the “absolute pandemonium” inside the building which was engulfed in flames aroun 9:30pm on New Year’s Eve.
It sparked mass manic but only minor injuries. One guest had a heart attack after being evacuated.
Brit Angus Villar, 27, told Sky News how he carried his wheelchair-bound mother down 15 flights of stairs.
“I got to the fire escape before the actual fire alarm had started going off, by which point there were already people running in the corridors, panicking essentially, and I ended up having to put somebody on my back who was in a wheelchair,” he said.
“It was the classic thing where you would expect people to let women and children off first, but no, there were people shoving each other down the stairs and climbing over each other.”
#NEEDANADDRESS
As Dubai officials investigated the cause of the blaze, the hashtag #NeedanAddress trended online with residents offering their homes to evacuated guests.
“We have sofas, sleeping bags and an endless supply of love. Plus Nutella. #needanaddress #mydubai You’re not alone. You’re home,” resident Faizan Jamal Tweeted.
“This #NeedanAddress thing is awesome. Good going, Dubai,” Omar Adam wrote.
Many praised the response of fire and emergency services, pointing to the fact that there were no major injuries, though some questioned whether New Year’s festivities should have gone ahead.
“Bizarre response of authorities in Dubai. Surely fireworks could have waited till tomorrow?” Sumbal Naqi wrote.
A New Year’s Eve fireworks display at the Burj Khalifa, on left, still went ahead. Picture: AP Photo/Jon Gambrell.Source:AP
Officials have said the fire at the Address Downtown hotel erupted from the outside of the building on its 20th floor but the exact cause was not yet known.
The property, owned by Emaar’s hospitality group, is the 18th tallest building in the city and the 93rd highest in the world.
A growing tourist destination, Dubai has become famed in recent years for its distinctive skyline and ambitious building projects, but has suffered from a number of spectacular fires.
In November, a massive blaze engulfed three residential blocs in central Dubai and led to services on a metro line being suspended, although no one was hurt.
In February, a huge fire gutted one of the emirate’s tallest buildings, destroying luxury flats in the Torch tower and triggering an evacuation of nearby blocs in the Dubai Marina neighbourhood.
In 2012, a massive blaze gutted the 34-storey Tamweel Tower in the nearby Jumeirah Lake Towers district. It was later revealed to have been caused by a cigarette butt thrown into a bin.
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