Dubai - Fire broke out in building 'pole', say Dubai Civil Defence.
Published: Mon 23 Apr 2018, 3:11 PM
Updated: Mon 23 Apr 2018, 7:17 PM
- By
- Amira Agarib, Angel Lee Tesorero
The Dubai Civil Defence put out a minor fire that broke out in Almas Tower in Jumeirah Lake Towers, on Sunday. No injuries were reported in the incident.
At 2:45pm, the operations room of the Dubai Civil Defence received information about a fire that had erupted in the 68-storey sky scrapper. The rescue team - consisting of firefighters from four stations - rushed to the site and found that the fire had broken out in a pole on the top floor of the building.
Ash flew off the tower onto the street and the black smoke enveloped its front part.
The building was evacuated to ensure safety of people. Within 20 minutes, the firefighters managed to douse the flames. The Dubai Police cordoned off the place.
Major Firas Balhasa, director of central operations at Dubai Civil Defence, said the civil defence did a brave and courageous job by bringing the fire under control and putting it out within no time.
He said the civil defence team is always on their toes to deal with any type of fire. He also called on people to make sure to secure all electrical devices, specially during summer and not to leave them operational when leaving the building.
The Almas Tower was completed in 2009. It was the tallest building in Dubai, until Burj Khalifa came up.
Twitter lights up
While the fire raged, Twitter lit up as residents posted videos and photos of smoke coming out of the top of the tower.
Priya Bhatia, a resident of J2 Tower in JLT's Cluster J, told Khaleej Times: "I live in a building next to Almas Tower and I could see smoke billowing out from its pole. At 3.40pm, I noticed the smoke getting less with some debris falling from the spire. The fire department and ambulance service immediately arrived at the scene."
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