External cladding fires at UAE skyscrapers


Firefighters battled a blaze at the 79-storey Marina Torch Tower in the United Arab Emirates on Friday – the second fire at the Dubai tower and the seventh UAE skyscraper fire in five years

Dubai
Sharjah
IRAN
UAE
Abu Dhabi
SAUDI ARABIA
OMAN
YEMEN

Aluminium composite panels (ACPs)
Outer wall
Insulation
Ventilated cavity
ACP cladding
Twin aluminium sheets with polyurethane core



Jan 2012 – Al Baker Tower: Blaze displaces 125 families in Sharjah. Flammable ACPs are blamed for spreading fire 

Apr – Al Tayer Tower: Fire at 40-storey tower in Sharjah displaces hundreds of families. ACPs blamed for rapid spread of blaze

Oct – Saif Belhasa Building: Fire on 4th floor of 13-storey Dubai apartment block spreads rapidly to roof level via ACPs

Nov 2012 – Tamweel Tower: Blaze at 37-storey, 160-metre high tower burns two separate broad vertical bands through ACPs from ground to roof

Feb 2015 – Marina Torch: Fire in ACPs of 79-storey, 352-metre block rises up one side of building and down opposite side

Dec 2015 – The Address: ACP fire ravages 63-storey, 302-metre Dubai residential building (below). More than 40 storeys burn simultaneously at one stage

Aug 4, 2017 – Marina Torch: Blaze rips through 40 storeys of world’s fifth tallest residential tower


Sources: Probyn Miers, Alumco, CNN Picture: Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS