The Marina district in Dubai saw a restless night as a fire broke out in The Torch, one of the tallest residential buildings.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the 79-story skyscraper on Saturday. Witnesses saw flames shoot out both sides of the building, with what seemed to be molten glass and metal raining down. Strong winds helped the blaze spread through the building.
"I saw the fire falling from the window," Mehdi Ansari, who lives on the 27th floor of the building with his wife and baby, told NBC News, adding that the fire appeared to cover 10 or 15 floors.
The fire is believed to have started near the 50 th floor of the 330 meter building, which was opened only four years ago. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
Although some witnesses told Reuters that the alarm didn’t automatically go off in The Torch until the receptionists got a call from the surrounding buildings, The Independent reports that building often experienced false fire alarms, according to other witnesses.
“They (the Torch receptionists) got a call from Princess Tower telling them the building was on fire. The alarms were not operating automatically,” Archibald Jurdi, who lives on the 76th floor, told Reuters.
"There have been three fire alarms every week recently and all were false," they said . "This time I heard it and said it must be false. But then I smelt smoke. I took my wallet and ran down along with my wife. We live on the 59th floor. "
The fire alarm went off around 2:05 a.m. Dubai Local Time.
Watch the following footage of the massive fire:
Eyewitnesses said at least 10 fire engines arrived in response to the reports, along with police and ambulances.
"The firefighters did well. They were pretty quick, they organized people, got them out, gave them water and found others," Ansari added .
Traffic in the area was diverted away from the scene, and residents of the surrounding buildings were advised to evacuate the buildings as well. No casualties were reported.
