Dubai Skyscraper Inferno

[Nice Squirrel]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35207451

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Hope this is just a big fire and not a big death toll. Hopefully they were able to get out.

 

[ZiprHead]

How the hell does the FD put something like that out?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

How the hell does the FD put something like that out?

I don't think they can. At some point I presume it means rescue and attempting to hold it down on the lower floors.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35207451

Looks like a scene from a 70's movie.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Sadly OJ is in jail and not available to save the cat.

 

[arkirk]

It is funny: I thought steel buildings were supposed to collapse in their own footprint...Like mythical American buildings.

Sometimes when you look at the terrific amount of non flammable materials in these buildings, it is hard to see where or how fires could start and then sustain themselves. Someone was taking an awful risk with this building. It will be interesting to see if there is more analysis on this fire. We had a fire in L.A. in a fairly tall building I believe it was called at the time, the First Interstate Bank. The fire was difficult to fight but it was extinguished and the building put back in order.

 

[Rhea]

think it was the fireworks?

 

[jonatha]

Third one this year.

 

[TSwizzle]

Hope this is just a big fire and not a big death toll. Hopefully they were able to get out.

Hopefully the virtue police don't force uncovered women back in.

 

[arkirk]

Third one this year.

The construction contract vultures are already circling...these boys have money and the vultures want to be in on the new rebuilding boom. I saw something similar happen in Laguna Beach after a fire. Lotsa work for lotsa construction slaves....good business.

 

[ZiprHead]

think it was the fireworks?

Fire was well under way before the fireworks show started. And it was a helluva show.

 

[Nexus]

How the hell does the FD put something like that out?

Helicopters with horizontal water cannons.

 

[ZiprHead]

Didn't see any in use on this fire.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Sadly OJ is in jail and not available to save the cat.

Yes, it will be a long time before OJ gets any pussy.

 

[whichphilosophy]

Hope this is just a big fire and not a big death toll. Hopefully they were able to get out.

Hopefully the virtue police don't force uncovered women back in.

Hijabs and Veils are not enforced in Dubai at least for all foreign persons including those from Muslim countries. Most local women wear this but when outside of the Arab countries they generally wear Western clothing. If a local Emirati objects to someone's dress he can complain to the police and they would possibly make an arrest. Though this is pretty rare the courts seem to rely on hearsay rather than proof.

- - - Updated - - -

Sadly OJ is in jail and not available to save the cat.

Yes, it will be a long time before OJ gets any pussy.

Perhaps someone is helping him to improvise.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It is funny: I thought steel buildings were supposed to collapse in their own footprint...Like mythical American buildings.

Not funny, and that'd be non-redundantly supported double tube construction buildings that had a 737 explode inside them. I know, I know, potAto, potahto

 

[thebeave]

Seems like they could just somehow rupture the building water tanks on the top floor and let the flood waters extinguish the fire.

 

[Jarhyn]

I'm honestly happy for them. The UAE is a very special kind of evil, and the people there are all quite complicit in the fact that their society is and continues to be built on the backs of slaves and that nobody there seems keen on changing that any time soon. Not to mention that whole 'killing gays' thing and the whole 'women are second class citizens' thing.

But we all know that wether the building takes out a chunk of Dubai or not, the damage will be repaired by that same slave labor again. It isn't a tragedy for the UAE, it is a tragedy for their slaves.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It is funny: I thought steel buildings were supposed to collapse in their own footprint...Like mythical American buildings.

Sometimes when you look at the terrific amount of non flammable materials in these buildings, it is hard to see where or how fires could start and then sustain themselves. Someone was taking an awful risk with this building. It will be interesting to see if there is more analysis on this fire. We had a fire in L.A. in a fairly tall building I believe it was called at the time, the First Interstate Bank. The fire was difficult to fight but it was extinguished and the building put back in order.

Normal building codes are designed to slow down fire. It's about buying enough time to get everyone out, hopefully buying enough time for the firefighters to put it out. The beams have insulation on them, until that burns through the tower will stand. Keep dumping water on the bottom of the fire and advance upwards--the beams should hold.

They couldn't do that with WTC7 because the fall of the twin towers took out the water main. They couldn't do it with the twin towers (although they didn't know that and thus lots of firefighters died trying) because the insulation was knocked off by the impacts--they didn't have the time they should have had.