Fire breaks out at Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lake Towers

 GulfNews.Com

Police begin probe into cause of fire that displaced hundreds of people

Dubai: Police have started investigations into the cause of a fire at Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lake Towers on Sunday.

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the fire left hundreds of people displaced and damaged several apartments. Falling debris damaged at least four vehicles and a playground near the building.

The fire started at 1:30am, with residents reporting that the fire started at the roof of the 34-storey building, near the air conditioning plant.

Falling flaming debris then caused most of the balconies to also catch fire, and the wind helped the fire spread, pushing the flames inside the building.

Residents of the building and the nearby Al Seef building were evacuated.

No one was reported injured in the blaze, the Civil Defence told Gulf News.

Witnesses took to the social networking site Twitter to report difficulties faced by firefighters in extinguishing the fire, which was burning its way up to the upper part of the building.

A resident told Gulf News that when he and his wife vacated their apartment, they saw fire coming out from their neighbour's apartment. "We had no idea the upper floors were also on fire. We tried to douse off the fire with buckets of water, before the sprinklers finally went on and we evacuated the building," he said.

The fire was put out at around 8:19am, the Civil Defence said.

Smoke could still be seen billowing from the building at around 11:30am and police have cordoned off the area.

JLT resident Monstilus posted on Youtube a video of the fire, which "happened outside my house."

"Apparently the whole building caught fire and some cars in the area. Big blasts throughout the night.  From what I heard, everyone evacuated safely," Monstilus said.