It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze, which the Associated Press reports affected at least 20 stories of the building. It is not immediately clear if anyone has been wounded in the blaze.
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This is the second massive skyscraper fire to strike Dubai this year. Started from a terrace & raced up.
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It is in the same complex as the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper.
Sydney’s biggest show kicks off global party despite terror fears
Samoa was the first nation to see in 2016, with New Zealand the first nation with a sizeable population to celebrate the New Year. New York: Around 1 million people were expected to converge on New York City’s Times Square for the annual celebration.
After major hotel fire, Dubai moved forward with New Year fireworks show.
The Burj Khalifa display, which is expected to attract as many as two million people to the Downtown Dubai area, will feature an eight-act display that presents the futuristic vision of the UAE, according to Emaar.
Organizers had installed 400,000 LED lights on the Burj Khalifa and used some 1.6 tons of fireworks for the seven-minute extravaganza.
Earlier in the evening, Dubai’s media office confirmed on Twitter that a fire had been reported at the Address Downtown Dubai hotel.
The fire began outside of the building, on the 20th floor, the media office tweeted, and firefighters are working to prevent it from spreading through the skyscraper’s interior.
Maj Gen Rashed al-Matrushi, general director of the Dubai Civil Defence, told the pan-Arab television channel Al Arabiya that the Burj Khalifa festivities would go ahead despite the fire, saying: “Of course, it will not affect the celebration”.
Jonathan Gilliam, a CNN law-enforcement analyst, said he was surprised by how fast the fire spread, quickly engulfing several floors and illuminating the night sky.
Almost an hour after the fire began, some onlookers began to leave while others stood, pressed against crowd barricades, watching the blaze.
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Standing nearby, Stuart O’Donnell, a British intensive care nurse who works in Dubai, said he was anxious for those inside the building as it was in a prime location to watch the fireworks display. “It just started burning real quick”. “I do feel suspicious of when a fire breaks out on New Year’s Eve”, he said.
