A fire has engulfed a Dubai hotel close to where the city is about to hold its New Year celebrations.
DUBAI (UAE) – The 63-storey Hotel in Dubai’s Downtown is on fire, with the flames reaching from the ground floor up another 40 storeys of the 63 floor building.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire at the five star hotel, which is near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper at 828 metres. The emergency services are currently evacuating the building.
Dubai had planned to wow spectators with three separate firework displays. The show was to begin at the Burj Khalifa, which organisers said was fitted with 400,000 LED lights.
“The building has been fully evacuated but we have no more information about what has happened,” she said. She was speaking from the other major branch of the hotel, ten minutes’ walk away in the Dubai Mall complex itself. “It’s a pretty big fire. It started about 30 minutes ago and is still going on. We don’t know the reason it happened yet. “The fireworks display was due to start outside the Burj Khalifa.”
