Fire breaks out in Sheikh Zayed Road tower

A fire broke out in a skyscraper on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on Wednesday, with no casualties or injuries reported.

Abu Nasier, head of media coordination at Dubai Civil Defence, said the fire started at 2:12 pm (GMT 1012) on the 30th floor of Al Salam Tecom Tower, a 47-storey building still under construction in Dubai Internet City (DIC).

The building is located along Sheikh Zayed Road behind the BBC World Building in Dubai Media City (DMC).

 "I can see a beam of black smoke coming out from the top of the building heading southwards," an eyewitness in the Dubai Marina area of the city told ArabianBusiness.com within the first half-hour of the fire breaking.

Emergency response teams, including helicopters, were been dispatched to tackle the blaze. A spokesperson for Tecom said no casualties had been reported. The Al Salam building is 195 metres tall.

Construction of the mixed-use tower is due to be completed this year.

Brigadier General Rashid Thani Rashid Al Matrooshi, director general of Dubai Civil Defence, said that the cause of fire was still under investigation.

"We'll investigate whether all safety measures were in place at the building," Matrooshi told UAE daily newspaper Khaleej Times.

Labourers involved in the tower's construction were mostly out of the building for lunch when the fire began.

"Initially we feared some of our colleagues might have been trapped inside. When we saw thick black smoke billowing out of the building we started panicking," said Jawahar Alam, a worker, told Khaleej Times.

One worker said he was sleeping on the 24th floor of the building when the fire broke out.

"It was one of the scariest moments of my life," said Rasool Al Salam.  “I rushed down and ran out of the building."

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