Fire Engulfs Luxury Dubai Hotel, Forcing Evacuation of New Year’s Crowd
By HALA DROUBI

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A luxury hotel skyscraper in Dubai was engulfed in flames after a fire broke out Thursday, causing an evacuation of a large crowd from the downtown area that had gathered for New Year’s Eve.

The fire at the hotel, the Address Downtown Dubai, occurred just hours before a fireworks display was scheduled to take place nearby. Teams of firefighters battled the flames for hours, and by midnight, when fireworks were unleashed not far from the burning building, the pyrotechnics further illuminated the night sky to the cheers of crowds gathered in the streets.

Fourteen people were reported to have sustained minor injuries and another person was moderately injured as a result of the crowds and smoke at the scene of the fire, the media office of the government of Dubai said on Twitter. One person at the site had a heart attack, it said.

Local officials said the hotel’s guests and staff had been evacuated, and so had the large crowds that had gathered around the hotel, causing traffic jams as motorists tried to get away from the scene.

It was a very windy evening, and the fire raged through the middle and upper floors of the 63-story building.

The government media office said on Twitter that the fire had “originated from outside” the 20th floor of the hotel and that internal fire systems had prevented it from spreading inside. The media office gave no further explanation as to how the fire had started.

The hotel, which opened in 2008, includes traditional guest rooms and luxury apartments that are used as long-term residences or investment properties. It is part of an opulent complex that includes a shopping mall with a giant aquarium, a theme park and a 22-screen cinema, and a fountain in a lake that shoots water as high as 500 feet. The hotel is steps from the Burj Khalifa, which is generally recognized as the world’s tallest building.

Zeina Mandour, 35, a Lebanese resident of Dubai who works in sales, was visiting relatives in one of the building’s apartments on the 39th floor. Just before 10 p.m., they heard an explosion, she said, and she saw black smoke and flames when she looked out the window. She could feel the heat of the flames from inside the apartment, she said in a telephone interview.

She and her family dashed out of the apartment and began knocking on neighbors’ doors and shouting for everyone to evacuate, Ms. Mandour said. They joined other people in the stairwell trying to leave as the building’s fire alarm sounded.

“We’re tired and stressed,” Ms. Mandour said from the Dubai Mall, where her family and other guests of the hotel had sought safety.

Another woman who was in the mall at the time, Tina Karakalla, said people ran from outdoor cafes near the burning hotel and shouted “fire.” The police guided the evacuees to safety, while ambulances gathered to assist.

Dubai, with a population of two million, is the largest city of the United Arab Emirates and has worked to build itself as a major tourist and investment destination. In 2009, Dubai received a financial bailout from Abu Dhabi, another of the emirates. The Burj Khalifa, which opened in 2010, was originally named the Burj Dubai but was renamed after the bailout in honor of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the emir of Abu Dhabi.

杜拜倒數前 飯店冒大火

延燒4小時仍未撲滅 起火原因不明 民眾驚慌尖叫奔離火場 16人受傷

全球最高的杜拜哈里發塔31日晚間慶祝跨年之前幾小時，附近一座63樓的豪華飯店突然冒出烈焰和濃煙，引起數十萬民眾對提前上演的煙火秀猛吹口哨和歡呼。

旅館有多個樓層被大火籠罩，大樓內部傳出爆炸聲，警報尖銳鳴響，並有數架直升機在上空盤旋，目前尚不知道起火的原因，所幸只有16人受傷。

起火的Address Downtown是一家五星級飯店，也是杜拜最高建築之一，有七個樓廳和餐館，離哈里發塔只有幾個街區。杜拜警察局長阿姆柴瑪將軍說，飯店的所有住客都已撤離，大火在延燒了四小時後仍未撲滅。

他說：「所有房客都已撤離，在火勢撲滅之前，我們無法知道起因。」

媒體的報導指出，至少有14人受輕傷，一人中等傷勢，另有一人則在濃煙和推擠時心臟病發。

幾位目擊者說，大樓在當地晚間9時半左右起火燃燒，很快就向上延燒幾十個樓層。在現場拍照的法新社記者說：「火苗從旅館大樓的中段冒出，先是迅速向下蔓延，接著又向上竄升，附近的民眾開始驚慌地奔離火場。」

住在火場附近的一位印度居民庫瑪則說：「在午夜之前兩小時，我們看到旅館的高樓層冒出火焰，民眾開始尖聲驚叫，慌張地逃離飯店。我們擔憂會造成死傷，而跨年慶祝活動也會取消。」

政府在推特網站上發表的貼文則說，「火勢從第20樓冒出，而且只影響到大樓建築的外觀。」

雖然附近有濃煙、大火搶鏡頭，828公尺高的哈里發塔跨年煙火表演，仍按預定計畫在午夜展開。

杜拜經濟依賴觀光，新年尤其是旅遊熱季，當地的帆船飯店、棕櫚形狀的人工島，以及世界最高建築哈里發塔的跨年煙火秀，都會吸引世界各地的觀光客前來，估計31日在現場觀賞這場煙火、雷射聲光秀的遊客，多達100萬人

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/world/middleeast/dubai-hotel-fire-address.html

Video：Amateur video shows the Address Downtown Dubai hotel engulfed in fire. The hotel is near the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in the United Arab Emirates city.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000004120580/hotel-fire-in-dubai.html

2016-01-01．聯合晚報．A6．國際．編譯陳澄和