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SoCal reporter describes Dubai hotel burning on New Year's Eve
A fire at the Address hotel in downtown Dubai broke out New Year's Eve 2015.
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Courtesy John Cádiz Klemack/ NBC 4
)
A fire at the Address hotel in downtown Dubai broke out New Year's Eve, hours before fireworks were set to welcome in 2015.
(
Courtesy John Cádiz Klemack/ NBC 4
)
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SoCal reporter describes Dubai hotel burning on New Year's Eve
A skyscraper caught fire in Dubai Thursday night as thousands awaited a firework spectacular that would ring in the new year. The firework show continued as planned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wFsfE2mnkw
Vacationing NBC4 reporter John Cádiz Klemack witnessed the fire that burned at the Address hotel in downtown Dubai from a restaurant where he planned to watch the firework show.
“When it first happened we heard this ‘pop,’ and then immediately looked up, and then the smoke and the flames started coming out of the building, and then pieces of the building started to fall to the ground and to a terrace down below,” Klemack said.
Klemack said that the evacuations happened in a very orderly fashion, and soon reports came from the Dubai Media Office that the fire was 90 percent contained.
"People on the street were surprised to hear that they would still go on with the fireworks display considering how close it is to the building that was burning," Klemack said.
Ten minutes before the fireworks began, Klemack heard another explosion and saw an orange glow in the sky near the area of the flames, he said.
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"Once we got out and saw the first explosion, we watched the flames dance straight up the side of the building all the way to the top," Klemack said.
NBC News reported that the 63-story building caught flame outside the 2oth floor of the building. The Dubai Media Office reported that there were 14 injuries and one heart attack as a result of the fire.
Though the Dubai Media Office reported the fire was nearly contained within a half hour, Klemack said flames persisted into the new year. He said his main concern is for the first responders likely present for the subsequent explosions as they addressed the initial flames.
The Dubai Media Office went on to tweet about the success of the New Year's Eve celebration.
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