{"id":30208,"date":"2016-01-01T09:03:32","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T17:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/dubai-fireworks-kick-off-while-tower-blazes\/"},"modified":"2016-01-01T09:03:32","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T17:03:32","slug":"dubai-fireworks-kick-off-while-tower-blazes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/dubai-fireworks-kick-off-while-tower-blazes\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai fireworks kick off while tower blazes"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates \u2014<\/strong> A 63-story luxury hotel was engulfed in flames even as a massive New Year\u2019s fireworks display kicked off at the world\u2019s tallest skyscraper nearby, while tens of thousands of people whistled and cheered at the pyrotechnics.<\/p>\n

Just minutes before the fireworks began in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, large explosions could be heard from inside the burning building, which was cloaked in thick black smoke. It was not clear what caused the blasts.<\/p>\n

At least 14 people were slightly injured, and one person suffered a heart attack from the smoke and over-crowding during an evacuation late Thursday, according to the Dubai Media Office. The statement said another person was moderately injured, without elaborating further. No children were among those injured, it said.<\/p>\n

Around 1 million people had been expected to gather around the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to watch the fireworks. Dubai\u2019s economy depends heavily on tourism, and New Year\u2019s is one of the busiest seasons, drawing people from around the world to watch the fireworks that the emirate puts on at the world\u2019s tallest tower, as well as the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab and over a man-made palm-shaped island.<\/p>\n

Organizers had installed 400,000 LED lights on the Burj Khalifa and used some 1.6 tons of fireworks for the seven-minute extravaganza. Two years ago on New Year\u2019s, Dubai broke the world record for the largest fireworks display.<\/p>\n

The fire engulfed the Address Downtown, one of the most upscale hotels and residences in Dubai, which was likely to have been packed with people because of its clear view of the 905-yard tall Burj Khalifa.<\/p>\n

The hotel towers over the Souq Al Bahar, a popular shopping area with walkways that connect to the Burj Khalifa and the Middle East\u2019s largest mall, the Dubai Mall.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which ran up the 63-story building. The Address is a 991 foot-tall (302-meter) skyscraper that has 626 luxury apartments and 196 hotel rooms, according to Skyscraper Center, which tracks such buildings.<\/p>\n

Dubai\u2019s Media Office wrote on its official Twitter account that four teams of firefighters were working to put out the blaze. They said the fire appears to have originated on a 20th floor terrace.<\/p>\n

The fire broke out about two hours before the midnight fireworks display was set to begin. To manage the crowds, Dubai police had closed off some roads and the metro before the fire broke out.<\/p>\n

Nearly an hour after the fire began, some onlookers began to leave while others stood, pressed against crowd barricades, watching the blaze. Among them was Chris Browne, a tourist from London, who watched with her husband, Stephen, standing behind her. They said they hoped no one was injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty scary stuff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Standing nearby, Stuart O\u2019Donnell, a British intensive care nurse who works in Dubai, said he was worried for those inside the building as it was in a prime location to watch the fireworks display.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou feel sad for the people inside… It spread so quickly when it started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He and others in the crowd wondered what had started the blaze. \u201cI do feel suspicious of when a fire breaks out on New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Dubai Media Office said that Dubai\u2019s tourism department would provide guests evacuated from the building with alternative hotel accommodation.<\/p>\n

After the fireworks show, Girlie Omilda, a Filipina who works in the aviation industry in Dubai, said she was glad to have seen the fireworks, even as the tower continued to burn. She too was concerned about threats from extremists like the Islamic State group. She said Dubai\u2019s large expatriate, non-Muslim population made the city a tempting target.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it makes me feel unsafe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Joseph Krauss in Cairo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com\/jongambrellap<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates \u2014 A 63-story luxury hotel was engulfed in flames even as a massive New Year\u2019s fireworks display kicked off at the world\u2019s tallest skyscraper nearby, while tens of thousands of people whistled and cheered at the pyrotechnics. Just minutes before the fireworks began in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, large explosions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":30209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30208"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}