Dubai’s Torch Tower catches fire for second time in two years
Last year a large blaze has ripped through one of the largest residential buildings in the world, the Torch Tower in Dubai. Flames shot up the side of the skyscraper, sending debris tumbling from the 337m (1,106 ft) structure.
By daybreak, the building had been left badly damaged and vehicles in the vicinity destroyed. The government media office said “cooling operations were under way”.
The Torch Tower was damaged by an earlier blaze in 2015, which resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of people. That fire, and other recent blazes in the city, spread quickly because of external cladding, according to fire engineering consultancy Tenable Dubai.
But they did not result in fatalities because the design and construction of the buildings allowed firefighters to battle the blaze and residents to evacuate via smoke-free, fire-free safety zones, the group says.
