
Wealthy residents of Dubai's Torch Tower have revealed how they fled from the burning 1,100ft building in just ten minutes thanks to its smoke free escape routes - in stark contrast to victims of London's Grenfell Tower disaster.

Fire 'spread rapidly' through one of the world's tallest residential towers sparking panic among terrified residents - including dozens of Britons - after a day when temperatures in the city climbed to 45C (113F).

Alarming footage showed flames climbing up the outside of the 86-storey skyscraper, a building popular with expats in the United Arab Emirates tourism hotspot.

Burning debris could be seen crashing down to the ground below as tearful residents fled and firefighters desperately tackled the blaze.

The same skyscraper was devastated by fire in 2015 and the building's flammable cladding, which was similar to that used in Grenfell Tower, was blamed for fuelling the flames. Unlike the inferno in West London in June, in which at least 80 died, residents of the Torch were able to escape unharmed with only a few people treated for smoke inhalation

Horrified residents this morning described how they woke to screaming and fire alarms after a blaze broke out on the 63rd floor. It is understood to have spread across 40-storeys of the 676-flat building, where apartments start at £381,000. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Emergency: Footage shows flames climbing up the 86-storey Torch Tower, a residential building in Dubai Marina in the early hours of this morning

The fire is believed to have broken out on around the 63rd floor of the building at about 1am with flames then spreading across 40 storeys

Inferno: Burning debris could be seen spiralling down to the ground below as firefighters desperately attempt to tackle the blaze

The blaze was so intense it spread to rows of cars parked nearby. Firefighters said they had brought the blaze under control by 4am today

Parts of the building were still undergoing restoration work following the 2015 blaze when the second fire broke out overnight. In both incidents, it appears fire alarms alerted residents and building staff knocked on doors to ensure a quick evacuation

Hundreds of residents filed down interior escape routes having received texts, phone calls and emails warning a fire had broken out. Building management staff also banged on doors to wake people up

Parts of the building were still undergoing restoration work following the 2015 blaze when the second fire broke out overnight. In both incidents, it appears fire alarms alerted residents and building staff knocked on doors to ensure a quick evacuation.

Dubai residents and tourists sharedphotos and videos of the flaming debris falling from the building.

'We were sleeping and we woke up to the fire alarm and people screaming. We ran down the stairs and it took us about 10 minutes to reach from the 50th floor,' a resident who gave his name as George told Reuters.

'It was very bad. The fire was very strong at that time, about 1 am. Then it started calming down over the next two hours,' he added.

One Scottish couple were left devastated after being forced to flee their burning home for the second time in two years.

Leeanne Hume, 38, and her husband Donnie, 40, fled the Torch tower in their pyjamas when the building caught fire two years ago.

The couple from Wishaw had to escape for a second time in the early hours after fire ripped through the tower once again.

Heartbroken Mrs Hume said: 'This is horrific. We are safe but our building is horrendous, worse than last time.'

Flames could be seen shooting out from the sides of the building and glass and debris rained down from the skyscraper (left). This morning, pictures emerged showing the charred exterior of the high-rise property

Fire 'spread rapidly' through one of the world's tallest residential towers sparking panic among terrified residents - including dozens of Britons - after a day when temperatures in the city climbed to 45C (113F)

Horrified residents this morning described how they woke to screaming and fire alarms after a blaze broke out on the 63rd floor. It is understood to have spread across 40-storeys of the 676-flat building, where apartments start at £381,000. The cause of the fire is not yet known

Burning debris could be seen crashing down to the ground below as tearful residents fled and firefighters desperately tackled the blaze

Emergency services descended on the scene within minutes and residents are said to have left the building in an 'orderly fashion'

Leeanne Hume, 38, and her husband Donnie, 40, fled the Torch tower in their pyjamas when the building caught fire two years ago. The couple (pictured) from Wishaw had to escape for a second time in the early hours after fire ripped through the tower once again

Aftermath: This morning, debris lay on the ground at the bottom of the building (right) while images showed the charred exterior (left)

This morning, Dubai's civil defence authorities said firefighting squads put out the blaze around 4am and were cooling the building

The pair were woken by alarms and security personnel and fled to a friend's home for refuge because they couldn't bear to see the building they have lived in for four years destroyed a second time.

Mrs Hume, who does not yet know the extent of the damage in their 15th floor apartment, said: 'I am scared to look at news or go back. As selfish as it sounds, I just pray our stuff is safe.'

Watford-born Danny Harper, a bar manager who lives on the 68th floor, said his flat had been destroyed in the fire, along with his possessions and his passport.

He was spending the morning trying to find out how to replace his documents and said: 'Thankfully I work nights and I am safe. My flat, however, is not and my passport is gone.'

Cambridge University graduate Effy Chengyu Wang, a management consultant from China, said she had grabbed her passport and wallet as she ran for her life but said: 'I am alive but I lost everything.'

The fire broke out on the southwest corner of the building, on the opposite corner to the previous fire.

Today there was still hoarding covering the damage from the 2015 blaze while an acrid smell of burning filled the air and bits of charred debris were still falling onto surrounding land.

Dozens of police officers and civil defence officers surrounded the building, preventing onlookers from taking pictures. There were no reported casualties, according to Wam, the official government news agency.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said fire alarms first went off just before 1am. He said residents had filed out via the stairs in an 'orderly' fashion.

The fire was put out within three hours and an evacuation centre set up nearby.

Sabine Abu Sabaa tweeted a photo of the burning building and wrote: 'Fire further spreading, reaching the parked cars'



The Dubai Media Office confirmed the Civil Defence was tackling the fire. Twitter user Ernesto Che Guevara said: 'If you are in there get out! It's spreading rapidly up the building'

Dubai Police Commander in Chief and Dubai Civil Defence Director General at the scene of the Torch Tower fire

Horrified Dubai residents and tourists shared photos and videos of the flaming debris falling from the building

Damage: Flames from the inferno eventually spread to a row of cars parked near to the giant Dubai skyscraper this morning

By 4am the exterior of the building showed no sign of fire as residents and onlookers stood around staring up at the building, according to witnesses

Horrified Dubai residents and tourists shared photos and videos of the flaming debris falling from the building

Simon Bach, a New Zealander who lives in a high-rise across the street, told The Associated Press he saw a few policemen as well as Emiratis in traditional white robes helping people get out. About 10 to 12 firetrucks arrived quickly on the scene, he said.

He said just as the firefighters had seemed to bring the blaze under control, falling debris ignited a part of the building further down.

'It seemed really out of control,' he said. 'People were streaming out of the car parks of the building.'

This morning, Dubai's civil defence authorities said firefighting squads put out the blaze around 4am and were cooling the building.

Firefighters and police sealed off surrounding streets, which were partially covered by dust and debris.

By 4am the exterior of the building showed no sign of fire as residents and onlookers stood around staring up at the building, according to witnesses.

Another resident, whose gave his name as Mohammed and lives on the 12th floor, said the top part of the tower caught fire first and then lower levels followed as debris fell.

The government said it was working on providing shelter for those affected by the fire.

The cause of the fire is not yet known but civil defence officials said they had 'successfully evacuated' the building and were investigating.

The Torch Tower is the fifth tallest residential building in the world and stands at more than 330 metres (1,105 ft). Footage shows flames climbing up the 79-storey Torch Tower, a residential building in the United Arab Emirates tourism hotspot

Emergency vehicles are pictured near the scene of the fire that broke out at Dubai's Torch Tower

After a series of recent fires, Dubai is introducing a new code for skyscrapers this year, insisting that full-scale mockups of the facade are fire-tested rather than just the individual materials

The Torch Tower is the fifth tallest residential building in the world and stands at more than 330 metres (1,105 ft).

It became the tallest residential building in the world in 2011 but lost the record the following year to the neighbouring Princess Tower.

In 2014, a luxury 6,500 sq ft penthouse apartment - accessible by exclusive lift access - with four en suite bedrooms and views across the towering Dubai Marina skyline went on the market for the equivalent of about £2.8million.

The tower's facilities include a gym, spa and outdoor pool with decking and upmarket furniture for its users.

Dubai authorities have previously said that some 30,000 properties across the United Arab Emirates had cladding or panelling that safety officials have said accelerates the rapid spread of fires.

HOW CLADDING CAME UNDER THE MICROSCOPE AFTER 2015 TORCH TOWER BLAZE In February 2015 Britons told of their terror as hundreds of residents were evacuated from Torch Tower when a fire broke out (pictured) In February 2015 Britons told of their terror as hundreds of residents were evacuated from one of the world's tallest residential buildings after it was engulfed in flames in the early hours of the morning. Pictures and video footage showed the large blaze rip through multiple floors of the Marina Torch tower in the expat-heavy Marina district of the city. More than a dozen fire were called on to extinguish after the fire alarm went off around 2am local time. One witness said flames shot out from two sides of the building as glass and metal rained down from near the summit of the skyscraper. Major General Rashid Al Matroushi said around 100 officers from nine civil defence stations took part in putting out the blaze. Two residents of the Torch, who were evacuated from the building, were told the fire started on the 52nd floor. They said the flaming material fell and set lower parts of the building ablaze. As daylight broke in Dubai the next morning, the external cladding on the corners of the Marina Torch building were mangled and charred black. In November 2012, experts blamed the same external coating for the inferno that engulfed another luxury Dubai development known as the Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT). The blaze at the 34-storey Tamweel Tower forced a mass evacuation of residents who lost all their worldly belongings. According to Gulf Business , some experts blamed faulty air-conditioning caused the accident while others have said sub-standard cladding material caused the blaze. 'As is evident from the videos, the fire started at the roof of building, and that might have been due to a short-circuit or over heating of any of the equipments installed on the roof,' Noman Qamar, project manager at fire protection company Aldes, told Gulf Business. The same skyscraper was devastated by fire in 2015 (pictured left and right) and the building's flammable cladding, which was similar to that used in Grenfell Tower, was blamed for fuelling the flames He added: 'The fire spread rapidly to other parts of the building mainly due to falling debris of the flammable cladding that was used on the tower, which is similar to other incidences that occurred in other residential towers.' The tower's cladding burned downwards in the early hours of Sunday morning, making hundreds of residents homeless, The National reported at the time. The Dubai Police forensic department has released its findings on the fire, which burnt half the building. According to the report, the fire started at the back of the building on the ground floor where the waste material was left by the labourers working on a shop in the building. The waste material contained papers, tapes and woods which fuelled the fire. It is not clear what material was used during repairs to the building. Advertisement

The incident may revive questions about the safety of materials used on the exteriors of tall buildings across the wealthy Gulf region and beyond.

An investigation by the management of the Torch after its 2015 fire found that most of the damage was to the cladding, exterior panelling used for decoration or insulation.

That blaze ripped through multiple floors of the new building, in the expat-heavy Marina district of the city. Flames shot out from two sides of the building and glass and metal rained down from the skyscraper.

Police in Britain have said they believe the system of insulation and cladding panels added during a refurbishment of London's Grenfell Tower may have contributed to the rapid spread of a fire there in June in which 80 people died.

Experts in the UK have previously voiced concerns that building regulations are unclear on the use of combustible cladding, which paved the way to their use by contractors.

Unlike Grenfell, residents of the Torch were able to escape unharmed. Internal fire alarms and building management sent workers knocking on doors to ensure residents got out.

In contrast, Grenfell residents reported not hearing an alarm. Firefighter also told people to remain in their flats, believing that they could contain the fire.

The UAE revised its building safety code in 2013 to require cladding on all new buildings over 50 feet tall be fire-resistant, but older buildings are exempt. External sprinklers are also being encouraged for new buildings.

Torch Tower became the tallest residential building in the world in 2011 but lost the record the following year to the neighbouring Princess Tower

The cause of the fire is not yet known but civil defence officials said they had 'successfully evacuated' the building

Unlike Grenfell (pictured), residents of the Torch were able to escape unharmed. Internal fire alarms and building management sent workers knocking on doors to ensure residents got out

Most of Dubai's approximately 250 high-rise buildings use cladding panels with thermoplastic cores, UAE media have reported. Panels can consist of plastic or polyurethane fillings sandwiched between aluminium sheets.

Such cladding is not necessarily hazardous, but it can be flammable under certain circumstances and, depending on a skyscraper's design, may channel fires through windows into the interiors of buildings.

Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the UAE, where several residential compounds and hotels have been hit by fire in recent years. In some of those cases, experts said the flames may have been encouraged to spread by exterior cladding.

In August 2016 a fire swept through a 28-storey building under construction in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, injuring 13 people, including 10 emergency service personnel.

Earlier that same month, a fire damaged part of a multi-storey building under construction in Dubai and in July 2016 a fire broke out in Dubai's residential 75-storey Sulafa Tower.