DUBAI // The dome over the lobby of the nearly completed Atlantis hotel which was damaged by fire last week will have to be replaced, the management said yesterday. The blaze, which broke out in the roof structure while welding work was being carried out, sent smoke billowing over the Palm Jumeirah on Tuesday. Nearby residents said it looked as though the entire hotel was on fire. Damage, however, was limited to the 43-metre wide dome which is an architectural feature and not part of the building's structural fabric.
As a result, the hotel is confident it can be replaced and remedial work completed in time to welcome its first guests on its Sept 24 opening. "It was the dome on top of the lobby that caught fire and not the inside, which is intact," said a spokesman for Kerzner International, which manages the hotel. "We will have it fully replaced for the opening." Alan Leibman, the president and managing director of Kerzner, was staying at the hotel when the fire broke out on Tuesday.
"Once the alarm was raised, we evacuated 230 staff and consultants safely and without harm from the hotel," the spokesman said. He denied that the presidential suite was damaged, saying: "We walked through that part of the hotel and there is no damage at all. The hotel is in top shape. It's business as usual." All preventive measures were in place at the five-star, 1,539-room hotel when the fire broke out early in the morning, he said. "Nobody was injured and it looked a lot worse than it actually was.
"The police are still investigating the cause and we are awaiting the official report." Although the hotel is on schedule to take its first guests on Sept 24, the grand opening date has not been finalised. "We will have the grand opening in November but we do not have an actual date yet," the spokesman said. He declined to comment on reports that Kylie Minogue, the Australian pop singer, will perform at the opening and rumours that David Beckham, the England footballer, will be staying at the hotel on the opening night.
The 46-hectare complex, modelled on a Kerzner project in the Bahamas, will include one of the largest man-made open-air marine habitats in the world and several water parks. It has attracted criticism from conservationists, who complain that its star attractions, 28 captured bottlenose dolphins, should not have been exported from the Solomon Islands. @Email:eharnan@thenational.ae
