Fire Engulfs Dubai's Torch Tower Skyscraper

[M II A II R II K]

Fire Engulfs Dubai's Torch Tower Skyscraper


21 February 2015

Read More: http://news.sky.com/story/1431432/fi...wer-skyscraper

A huge fire engulfed part of the Torch Tower in Dubai in the early hours of this morning, forcing hundreds of people to flee the 1,100ft skyscraper.

- Witnesses said the blaze appeared to have started at around 2am in the middle of the residential building, rapidly spreading across some 15 floors. In several videos posted on social media websites, multiple floors of the high-rise were seen ablaze. Strong winds fanned the flames and burning debris from the fire could be seen falling from building. One witness said flames shot out from two sides of the building as glass and metal rained down from near the summit of the structure.

- The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Officials said there were no reports of casualties. Opened in 2011, the Torch Tower has 79 floors and is one of the world's tallest residential buildings. It is located in the Marina district of the city which 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.

.....

[BrandonJXN]

[The Lurker]

Homeowners on Fallen Tree street were faced with a similar irony when a storm laid waste to neighborhood a few years back. I wonder what this tower will look like during the day. Can anybody post before and after pics?

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

It's actually the total opposite of irony... if the building had been called "The fire hose" then it would be ironic.


Still crazy though

[Amanita]

Apparently there's no structural damage to the building itself, and some residents have been let back in. This is nowhere near as bad as the Tamweel Tower incident.

Here's a pic I found, together with an article:


http://www.firstpost.com/world/photo...r-2113551.html

[Dracmus]

Chief O' Hallorhan: You know we were lucky tonight. Body count's less than 200. You know, one of these days you're gonna kill 10,000 in one of these firetraps, and I'm gonna keep eating smoke and bringing out bodies until somebody ask us... how to build them.
Doug Roberts: (turns to look at the scorched upper floors of the Tower and then back to O'Halloran) Okay, I'm asking.
Chief O' Hallorhan: You know where to reach me. So long, architect.


Sorry...I couldn't resist. Anyways, glad no one was hurt (at least as far as we know). Hopefully, the people won't have trouble getting reimbursed for any lost possessions...

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Dracmus

Chief O' Hallorhan: You know we were lucky tonight. Body count's less than 200. You know, one of these days you're gonna kill 10,000 in one of these firetraps, and I'm gonna keep eating smoke and bringing out bodies until somebody ask us... how to build them.
Doug Roberts: (turns to look at the scorched upper floors of the Tower and then back to O'Halloran) Okay, I'm asking.
Chief O' Hallorhan: You know where to reach me. So long, architect.


Sorry...I couldn't resist. Anyways, glad no one was hurt (at least as far as we know). Hopefully, the people won't have trouble getting reimbursed for any lost possessions...

'The Towering Inferno". Quote at the end of the film. Been one of my faves since I was a kid.

[MolsonExport]

yeah, I immediately recognized it from the Towering Inferno conclusion. Which was around the time of the beginning of my skyscraper infatuation.

[aaron38]

How is it possible for a a fire in a concrete and glass building to so quickly spread across 15 floors? How did it jump floors? Through the ventilation? Elevator shafts? Gaps between the floor plates and the curtain wall?

I have a hard time believing the spread of this fire is inrinsic to this building design and other buildings are immune.

[niwell]

I wonder what the cause for this fire was because a fire really shouldn't have spread to that extent in a modern highrise. Having worked with the building code here in Ontario buildings are designed to contain fires within the unit of ignition. That has been the case with pretty much every highrise fire in Ontario. The only deaths were in the unit of ignition.

The only scenarios I can think up are this started in a common area which allowed to spread (e.g. garbage chutes), or the building was not built up to the equivalent code most of the western world has.

[chris08876]

Could be a combination of arid or windy conditions. Supposedly, somebody grilling on a balcony caused it. So maybe the wind or something from one of those sandstorms they usually get pushed some burning material downwards. They did put it out quickly though, and luckily no one died. Could've been way worse when we think about it.

[CCs77]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

It's actually the total opposite of irony... if the building had been called "The fire hose" then it would be ironic.


Still crazy though

There is a lot of discusion on what consititutes an irony and what does not, for example for that Alanis Morrissette's song, they've said that its major irony is that it is a song about irony, on which the examples given by the lyrics, are not ironic at all.

Anyway, if it were called "The Fire Hose" it wouldn't make more of an irony than "The Torch"

The building was called "The Torch" because it has a crown resembling a torch. Obviously, the building was not supposed/wanted/expected/desired to end up actually burning, with real fire, like a torch.

So, if a building named "The Torch", that was supposed just to resemble a torch with fake fire on the top, ends up burning with real fire engulfing it, making it an actual gigantic torch, well, I think it is pretty ironic.

Originally Posted by niwell

I wonder what the cause for this fire was because a fire really shouldn't have spread to that extent in a modern highrise. Having worked with the building code here in Ontario buildings are designed to contain fires within the unit of ignition. That has been the case with pretty much every highrise fire in Ontario. The only deaths were in the unit of ignition.

The only scenarios I can think up are this started in a common area which allowed to spread (e.g. garbage chutes), or the building was not built up to the equivalent code most of the western world has.

For what I read, precisaly what burned was the facade material, it was not an internal fire, but more like an external one.

[Guiltyspark]

A little on the nose don't you think Dubai?

[dchan]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

Originally Posted by CCs77

There is a lot of discusion on what consititutes an irony ...

There really isn't. There are people who know what the term means and how to use it, and people who use it out of habit in situations that should really be described as "coincidental". It's not too different than people using the phrase "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes", only in this case, it's not a malaproprism but a misuse/misunderstanding of a word. I get why people use it, as the term "coincidental" doesn't quite pack the punch of the term "ironic", but wrong is wrong.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by CCs77

For what I read, precisaly what burned was the facade material, it was not an internal fire, but more like an external one.

Yeah that makes more sense - particularly it it were a balcony started fire coupled with the intense wind. Although we also require fire resistant cladding on certain classes of buildings here. So still a bit suspect.

[kznyc2k]

One word: EIFS

[drumz0rz]

Originally Posted by chris08876

Could be a combination of arid or windy conditions. Supposedly, somebody grilling on a balcony caused it. So maybe the wind or something from one of those sandstorms they usually get pushed some burning material downwards. They did put it out quickly though, and luckily no one died. Could've been way worse when we think about it.

Why would somebody be out grilling at 2am?

[chris08876]

I read it on some news site. They say the cause was because somebody was grilling something on a balcony. Idk.. maybe he got hungry after smoking a ounce of hashish?

There investigating the exact root of it, but I've heard cooking or grilling on a couple of news articles on the subject. If its true, idk 100%. Time will tell.

[HomrQT]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

It's actually the total opposite of irony... if the building had been called "The fire hose" then it would be ironic.


Still crazy though

That would be an example of dramatic irony. The building being on fire and also named the torch could be an example of verbal irony.

[ThatOneGuy]

It burned because of a flammable cladding material. This type of cladding has already been banned in placed like the UK and USA