Once the world’s tallest residential building, The Torch, lived up to its name and again made headlines around the world last month when a huge fire set the 1,105 foot tall building ablaze.
Despite dramatic videos of the inferno being beamed across the internet, fortunately no-one was harmed in the incident and Kingfield Owner Association Management Services, the building’s management company, last week reported that the structure of the tower had not been affected by the fire while “most of the damage was limited to the exterior cladding”.
But as Dubai Civil Defence begins the painstaking work of investigating what caused the blaze, cleaners remove the debris and many residents return to their homes, the dramatic fire footage has once again ignited long-standing concerns about the sort of cladding used in Dubai towers.
It is far too early to speculate on what caused the Torch fire last month.
However, parallels are being drawn with the 34-storey Tamweel Tower fire in Tecom in 2012, where a stray cigarette butt was found to have caused aluminium cladding panels to burn downwards, leaving tenants homeless.
Flammable cladding materials, comprising plastic or polyurethane fillings – called a thermo-plastic core – sandwiched between aluminium panels, have been blamed for spreading fires at both the Al Baker Tower 4 and the Al Tayer Tower in Sharjah in 2012.
Experts believe the majority of Dubai’s approximately 250 high-rise buildings use cladding panels with a thermo-plastic core, which have been generally used for insulation, to improve rigidity and for cosmetic purposes .
The 2012 blazes prompted the Ministry of Interior to introduce an extension to the emirate’s Fire and Life safety code requiring cladding for new buildings to adhere to tough new fire safety regulations and outlawing the use of foamed plastic insulation.
And in 2013 Civil Defence chiefs announced an extension to existing fire safety codes requiring owners of high-rise buildings with flammable cladding to install a ring of fire retardant panels every three floors, to stop fires spreading, and external sprinklers. The managers of the 86-storey Torch, which comprises 676 apartments and six shops, are quick to point out that the building adhered to all Dubai fire safety requirements when it was completed in May 2011.
“The Torch Tower was built strictly to code and all approvals from relevant authorities were obtained prior to the completion certificate being issued by the authorities,” says Kingfield Owner Association Management Services.
But for buildings’ insurers, who have to bear the costs of expensive claims in the event of a fire, the use of aluminium composite panels in towers is of growing concern – and that makes the properties harder to insure.
“What we look at in a building is whether these panels are extensively used or if they are used up to a reasonable amount,” says A K Ravindran, the technical director at RSA Insurance.
“So if a building has less than 50 per cent of its cladding made up of these panels we don’t consider it a great risk to underwrite,” he says. “We do categorisation for up to 10 per cent, 10 to 20 per cent, 20 per cent to 50 per cent and above 50 per cent.
“It enables us to evaluate our exposure in these segments. Generally what we notice is that more than 50 per cent is not a manageable risk to underwrite.”
Mr Ravindran estimates that at least 30 per cent of the buildings RSA insures in Dubai contain aluminium panels “in some form or other” – especially those in areas such as JLT and Dubai Marina.
He says that for those with the highest proportion of panels, insurance options are limited.
“We don’t insure many buildings with more than 50 per cent foam panels,” he says.
“Most of the insurance companies look into the fire exposure quite keenly. This is an issue which is faced by all the insurance companies.
“There will definitely be a few buildings which will be completely uninsurable. Owners of these buildings will have to improve the quality of their buildings.”
Oman Insurance Company, the main insurer of the Torch Tower, declines to comment on its policy for insuring buildings clad in aluminium composite panels.
“As one of the leading insurers in the region, in the business for nearly 40 years, we have reinsurance support,” a spokeswoman says.
Meanwhile, for buildings that include non-regulated foam panel cladding, property experts are advising caution.
“Each building is built differently,” says Christopher Seymour, the head of property at the building consultancy EC Harris. “There have been fires in Dubai where it was suggested that the fire spread was to have been around the specification of the foam core in the sandwich cladding panels. The regulations which came into force into in 2012 updated that specification.
“The normal thing to do for buildings completed before the new codes came in would be to have a technical assessment on the building to assess these risks,” Mr Seymour adds.
“We certainly wouldn’t be saying that every building which has that sort of cladding is a fire risk.”
Mr Ravindran agrees. “At the end of the day for us it’s all about risk management,” he says.
“Glass cladding also is not a perfect solution as there is also a risk that fire can spread from one floor to another,” he points out.
“We look closely at how well the building’s management controls activities such as smoking and maintains the building.”
In the meantime, Torch residents will be grateful the building’s evacuation procedures were effective and the Dubai emergency services’ expertise helped to prevent further distress.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Who is Allegra Stratton?
- Previously worked at The Guardian, BBC’s Newsnight programme and ITV News
- Took up a public relations role for Chancellor Rishi Sunak in April 2020
- In October 2020 she was hired to lead No 10’s planned daily televised press briefings
- The idea was later scrapped and she was appointed spokeswoman for Cop26
- Ms Stratton, 41, is married to James Forsyth, the political editor of The Spectator
- She has strong connections to the Conservative establishment
- Mr Sunak served as best man at her 2011 wedding to Mr Forsyth
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Dunki
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What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
The specs: 2018 Ducati SuperSport S
Price, base / as tested: Dh74,900 / Dh85,900
Engine: 937cc
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox
Power: 110hp @ 9,000rpm
Torque: 93Nm @ 6,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 5.9L / 100km
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
The biog:
From: Wimbledon, London, UK
Education: Medical doctor
Hobbies: Travelling, meeting new people and cultures
Favourite animals: All of them
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
- Tourism industry knowledge.
- Professional ethics.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Brief scores:
Day 2
England: 277 & 19-0
West Indies: 154
More from our neighbourhood series:
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
The five pillars of Islam