The hashtag #NeedanAddress trended on Twitter overnight as Dubai residents offered to open their homes to evacuated hotel guests.
“We have sofas, sleeping bags and an endless supply of love. Plus Nutella. #needanaddress #mydubai You’re not alone. You’re home,” resident Faizan Jamal Tweeted.
“This #NeedanAddress thing is awesome. Good going, Dubai,” Omar Adam wrote.
Many on Twitter praised the response of fire and emergency services, pointing to the fact that there were no major injuries, though some questioned whether New Year’s festivities should have gone ahead.
“Bizarre response of authorities in Dubai. Surely fireworks could have waited till tomorrow?” Sumbal Naqi wrote.
The Dubai government said evacuated guests were being offered alternative accommodation and provided a telephone number to call for assistance.
It published several videos on its Twitter feed of fireworks erupting around the iconic Burj Khalifa and said the New Year’s celebration was a testimony to Dubai’s “steadfast commitment to its major projects and initiatives”.
Trapped on ledge
A newspaper photographer who was on a 48th floor to take pictures of the fireworks when the fire erupted told Agence France-Presse he had spent a harrowing 30 minutes standing on a ledge outside the building, only meters from the raging blaze.
The photographer, who asked not to be named, said he was trapped on a balcony by fire and smoke.
Unable to escape and afraid he would die of suffocation, he rolled out some 30 meters (100 feet) of heavy-duty cable from a nearby machine used by workers to clean the tower’s windows, attached it to his belt and stepped off the balcony onto a narrow ledge.
“One hour, then that’s it, I’m dead,” he thought as he stood on the ledge. He was eventually saved by rescue workers after calling and texting colleagues asking for help.
The Address Downtown hotel, opened in May 2008 and owned by Dubai property giant Emaar’s hospitality group, is the 18th tallest building in the city and the 93rd highest in the world.
A growing tourist destination, Dubai has become famed in recent years for its distinctive skyline and ambitious building projects, but has suffered from a number of spectacular fires.
In November, a massive blaze engulfed three residential blocs in central Dubai and led to services on a metro line being suspended, although no one was hurt.
In February, a huge fire gutted one of the emirate’s tallest buildings, destroying luxury flats in the Torch tower and triggering an evacuation of nearby blocs in the Dubai Marina neighborhood.
In 2012, a massive blaze gutted the 34-storey Tamweel Tower in the nearby Jumeirah Lake Towers district. It was later revealed to have been caused by a cigarette butt thrown into a bin. AFP
(See related story about the Filipino photographer who escaped the fire, headlined, "We didn’t notice the fire . . . we were focused on the Burj"), also on the home page.