Smoke still wafting from Dubai's luxury Address hotel after New Year's blaze

 

CNN)Clouds of smoke continued to waft Friday from a 63-floor luxury hotel in Dubai that was engulfed in flames on New Year's Eve.

Firefighters had battled the blaze raging at the swanky Address Downtown Dubai hotel late Thursday as a spectacular New Year's fireworks display lit up the night sky nearby.

The fire started around 9:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) Thursday and burned well into early Friday. Witnesses said they heard explosions as the blaze ate away at one side of the towering structure in the heart of downtown Dubai.

Bruce Szczepanski, who watched from the balcony of a nearby hotel, said he could still hear parts of the building crashing to the ground more than nine hours after the blaze began.

"There are huge flames, and you can hear the structure falling and the thuds," he said.

Couple pose for ‘most inappropriate selfie ever’ in front of Dubai skyscraper fire

 

A couple’s photo in front of a blazing Dubai hotel has been called ‘the most inappropriate selfie ever’.

Just hours before Dubai celebrated New Year’s Eve, the Address Downtown Dubai hotel went up in flames.

One couple took the opportunity to take a selfie in front of it and posted the photo on Instagram along with the caption: ‘Happy New Year My dear Dubai. May God bless you and keep you safe, you always surprise us with the biggest fireworks.’

People were not impressed.

 

 

One commenter called it the ‘most inappropriate selfie ever.’
Another wrote: ‘Yeah let’s take a selfie where people could be burning to death.’
Thousands escaped the fire because the flames were restricted to the outside of the building.
Major General Rashed al-Matrushi, general director of the Dubai Civil Defence, told the the pan-Arab television channel Al Arabiya: ‘There are no injuries, thank God.’
It appeared to have broken out on the 20th floor.