Sharjah: A fire broke out Thursday in a high-rise residential tower in the Emirati city of Sharjah, sending thick smoke billowing over the city and snarling traffic as commuters headed home at the end of the local work week.
The blaze was the latest in a string of dramatic fires that have consumed the facades of skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates in recent years, posing a challenge for firefighters and raising concerns about fire safety in the rapidly developing Gulf nation. The fire appeared to be extinguished by nightfall. A Red Crescent tent was set up behind the building to care for those affected.
The Sharjah civil defence directorate had no comment. Firefighters on the scene reported no fatalities or major injuries, but said that several people were treated for smoke inhalation. The declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Photos posted on social media showed thick smoke billowing from the fire as it licked up several stories of the tower's facade. It did not appear that the fire spread deep inside the building, which is located near the popular City Centre Sharjah shopping mall. Falling, burning debris damaged at least five cars parked at the base of the tower.
Sharjah resident Shane Jansen told The Associated Press he saw an apartment on one of the lower floors engulfed in flames. He said it appeared that the fire spread upward from there as gusts of wind fanned the flames.
"It looks like it crawled up the building," he said. "You see the fire calms down a bit, and then when the wind starts gushing up it starts rising up."
Fire crews initially struggled to reach the scene of the fire because of narrow streets in the area, Jansen said. Helicopters could be seen hovering over the scene of the afternoon blaze, which left about a third of the tower's face charred black.
The densely populated city of Sharjah sits immediately adjacent to Dubai, the Mideast's booming commercial hub. It is home to hundreds of thousands of expatriate families and migrant workers, many of whom commute daily south into Dubai.
Fires have affected several skyscrapers in the Emirates, including a similar blaze in February that spread along the external cladding of Dubai's 86-story Torch tower, one of the world's tallest residential buildings. There were no serious casualties in that fire.
