There’s been a great deal of talk about fires recently- the Grenfell Tower in Kensington Borough, London and now the appropriately named Torch Tower in Dubai.
I know the building well, since I passed it most days and it was down the road from our office. Not an outstanding building, just a tall one. And one where the rental price was high- fully furnished, good facilities (but that’s the norm in Dubai)- which was about 20,000 dirhams a month (USD 5,400 a month) for rent. Some of the people have moved back in, according to reports.
It was the second time it had caught alight within two years. It’s the external cladding that is to blame evidently. I interviewed the CEO
of Alubond (which is based in a neighbouring emirate, Sharjah) and is the the world’s largest maker of aluminium composite panels and the company that supplied The Address Downtown Dubai, in the Burj Khalifa. I have read since that Alubond stopped manufacturing the controversial panels containing cores known by the industry shorthand of LDPE (low-density polythene) after the Address hotel went up in flames on New Years’ Eve 2016.
It was the second time the Torch Tower was up in flames in the last couple of years. This is not surprising in a place where fires happen quite frequently. There have been dozens of other fires besides the Address Downtown, most of which are not mentioned in the media.
My apartment block in Media City was one of them. I arrived home one day, after being away for a couple of days (maybe in Doha- which wouldn’t happen now) to find the apartment above me had been burnt out. Most of the rest of the building was fine.
Unfortunately, about a week later the security guard (Indian) who had rescued the woman inside the apartment was taken off in a police van. I arrived home from work one day to find police cars outside and some fully covered Saudi Arabian women inside. Someone had told the police, evidently, that the security guard was having an affair with a Philipina and consequently the “Indian” was escorted to a police van and, I heard, later deported. The woman was put in prison- of course.
So that’s a down side of a fire.
My apartment building in Dubai
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