We’re okay.

We moved back into our apartment Monday evening, and spent the rest of the evening cleaning out the dust that covered everything.

Surprisingly, our apartment was not impacted at all by the fire.

We were onboard in my hometown, just about to depart when a good friend of G’s saw the news down under that our tower on fire. Imagine our distraught to watch a video that seemed to show the whole building had caught on fire. It was a nightmare. We thought we had lost everything 🙁

Link to video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGXucwiVdCo

We tried our best to contact who we knew that lived in The Torch, and it was at that very moment that I wish I had gotten to know my next-door neighbour a little better. (Note to all: Please, get to know your neighbours. Get their names, maybe their numbers. You never know when you  need to ring someone in case of an emergency)

Arrived back in Dubai on Saturday evening, and made our way back to The Torch, to see security and a lot of displaced people in the lobby. We were told that we could go up by lift only to the 47th floor (low-rise lifts), and that we had to walk up the rest to where we lived. Opened the door, and almost had tears of relief to see our home, still there. No smoke smell, it was completely just as had left, plus a layer of sand over all our furniture – not from the fire, but just from the sandstorm.

Sitting on the floor right now, blogging, I can only be thankful that our home is still here.

Although we missed the chaos, from talking to other residents and how they had handled everything, I think Kingfield and all the security boys were super. The fact that they had provided temporary shelter in Princess Tower across the road so quick, and then managed to get residents whose home was not impacted, back by the evening, was amazing. Updates on our Torch portal was frequent, so everyone could check it to see what the status is.

I feel for all those who had to run down from 1 to 84 levels of stairs on Friday morning, at 2am. Especially the elderlies, and families with very young children. And for those whose home is partially destroyed, I really hope a solution is found soon.

I just hope clients, developers and facade engineers will stop specifying cheap thermoplastic infill aluminium panels. Insulation that combustible? C’mon. Is it really banned in the UAE?

• Click here, for discussion on skyscrapercity.com.
• Random discussion found online, by Dr. Gordon M.E Cooke here.

Disclaimer : Photo used behind blog title, is taken from Emirates 247. We were not in Dubai when it happened.