Fire Rips Through Dubai's Torch Tower, One Of World's Tallest Residential Buildings
DUBAI (CBSNewYork/CBS News) -- A column of fire ripped through a residential skyscraper in Dubai early Fridy local time, engulfing the tower in flames.
Social media posts showed flames spreading up the Torch Tower as burning debris fell down.
BBC News reports the building was "successfully evacuated." Authorities say they have brought the fire under control.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze. At 84 stories, the tower is one of the world's tallest residential structures.
Video showed more than 40 floors of the skyscraper appeared to be engulfed in flames on one side of the building, CBS2's Andrea Grymes reported.
Authorities have tweeted there have been no injuries so far:
No injuries have been reported so far in the Torch Tower fire incident
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) August 3, 2017
The Associated Press writes that one of its reporters was near the scene and said more than 40 floors of the high-rise tower appeared to be on fire on one side of the building. The AP writes that residents of the building could be seen crying with several saying the fire broke just after 1 a.m.
Officials blocked off the area near the building, keeping people about a block away from danger.
The Associated Press writes that one of its reporters was near the scene and said more than 40 floors of the high-rise tower appeared to be on fire on one side of the building. The AP writes that residents of the building could be seen crying with several saying the fire broke just after 1 a.m.
Officials blocked off the area near the building, keeping people about a block away from danger.
The Torch was also damaged by an earlier fire in 2015, BBC News adds. The AP mentions that an inferno also broke out at a 63-story luxury hotel in Dubai on New Year's Eve in 2016.
The Torch Tower opened in 2011, and was the world's tallest residential building at its opening. But it has since been surpassed by six others.
The tower is also thought to be the 32nd tallest building in the world, according to the Skyscraper Center.
It has 676 apartments. A two-bedroom apartment starts at more than $500,000 or £381,000.
Residents have access to an eight-story garage and a swimming pool overlooking Dubai's waterfront.
The neighborhood is home to dozens of towering apartment blocks and hotels, many of them built over the past decade. The apartments are popular with Dubai's large number of expatriate professionals.
At least 80 people were killed in June when a destructive blaze ripped through the Grenfell Tower in London. That fatal fire prompted Britain to order a thorough test of the cladding systems of its towers.