A businessman says he had a ‘lucky escape’ from the fire which engulfed part of a luxury hotel in Dubai on New Year’s Eve.
Richard Upshall had been sitting on a terrace with a friend at the Address Downtown Hotel when they noticed flames above them.
Mr Upshall told ITV Tyne Tees that the fire caught the hotel ‘by surprise’ and said guests organised themselves in order to escape.
Mr Upshall is based in the UAE but has five companies in Stockton. Among them, a talent management business which represents the Billingham singer Josh Daniel, who took part in this year’s X Factor.
In a statement, the Dubai government said it responded ‘rapidly’ to the fire, coordinating efforts to ‘instantly evacuate’ hotel guests..
The Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reported the chairman of Emaar Properties, which owns the hotel, as saying: