Fire Breaks Out at the Address Downtown in Dubai

Fifteen minutes before the new year, a fire broke out in a five-star hotel next to the Burj Khalifa causing panic and one fatality.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates is an attractive city for thousands of tourists The Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, lies in the center of the city, as fireworks lights up the sky. However, the New Year’s Eve excitement turned into frenzy when a fire broke out at the Address Downtown, a five-star hotel that is near the Burj Khalifa.

Meghana Pandian and her family were outside waiting for the fireworks when the pandemonium began. Pandian said that she heard people yelling and running, and when she turned her head, she saw that a fire had broken out at the nearby hotel. Due to the popularity of the hotel, there were thousands of people trying to escape. In fear, her family ran with the crowd.

“I was really scared the building was going to collapse, and I was really scared for the people still in the building,” Meghana said as she recalled the incident.

Fire departments arrived, but the fire was too large to put out right away. It took an entire day for the fire to die down.

The final report stated the fire was caused by faulty wiring; however, there is major controversy over this. For witnesses like Pandian, they do not believe that a fire of that size could have been caused by some faulty wires. The enormous size of the fire led Pandian to suspect that it was a terrorist attack. She also reported that there were claims that the fire was caused by cigarettes, but again, she believes that the fire was too large to be caused by a cigarette.