Smoke Still Rising From Dubai High-Rise Amid Fire Investigation

APPHOTO XSA113: A fire burns on the Address Downtown skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016.

More than 12 hours after the fire began, firefighters this morning were largely just watching from the ground – at one point, unable to use a water hose from a ladder truck. Officials say the fire has been brought largely under control, while an investigation into what caused the blaze is underway.

The government in Dubai says efforts to cool down the scene of last night’s massive fire in a luxury hotel continue today. They later regained water pressure and resumed spraying the building.

The Address Downtown Dubai hotel near the worlds tallest building ( Burj Khalifa) was gutted by fire this evening.

Every year, Dubai stages one of the world’s most spectacular fireworks displays from the 160-storey Burj, which opened in 2010 and stands nearly 830 metres tall.

Astonishingly only 16 people were hurt in the incident which failed to prevent authorities from going full steam ahead with their multi-million pound fireworks show.

The cause of the blaze, which is said to have started on the 20th floor, is still not known.

Lt. Gen. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, also praised first responders to the blaze for “the success of the rescue operation” in comments published by the state-run WAM news agency.

Tourist Michelle Duque, who is visiting Dubai, said: “All of a sudden we saw this huge black plume of black smoke coming between the Khalifa Tower and the hotel”. There were no serious casualties in that fire.