Dubai’s Dream Tower on fire as residents see flames erupting from roof


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An apartment building in the Dubai Marina area caught fire on Monday afternoon, as witnesses reported black smoke and flames coming from its roof.

The fire at Tower A, close to Jumeirah Lakes Towers Tram Station, was filmed by passers-by who shared the images of the burning building on social media and WhatsApp.

Dubai Civil Defence operations room was alerted at 12.29pm to the Dubai Marina area. Firefighters from Al Marsa Station were immediately sent to deal with the blaze.

Officers checked the air-conditioning coolers on the rooftop of the building, where the fire was burning. Specialised teams then began evacuation and firefighting operations.

At 12.44pm, the fire was under control and cooling operations were under way. The incident concluded at 1.44pm.

The 29-storey building is 174 metres high and was completed in 2010, according to an online registry.

Woong-ki Min, a South Korean citizen and Dubai resident, said: “I am in a building nearly 100 metres from where the fire broke out. It started around 12.15pm and people began coming out of the balconies in nearby buildings to see what was happening.

I heard sirens and it seems that the fire has now been brought under control. From my place on the 35th floor, I could only see the top of the building where the fire occurred.”

In December, a large blaze spread rapidly through a mid-rise tower in Al Barsha, near the Mall of Emirates, at about 10.30pm, as many of its occupants slept.

The fire broke out at the Time Topaz Hotel Apartments with teams from Dubai Civil Defence arriving within five minutes to battle the intense blaze.

No one was injured, authorities told The National. Staff at a nearby hotel said some of the affected residents have been moved from their properties.

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It Was Just an Accident

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Rating: 4/5

MATCH INFO

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Tearful appearance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday. 

Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow. 

She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.

Updated: February 17, 2025, 12:44 PM`