This is what it the skyscraper, Astana's tallest, looked like. It resembles a cigarette lighter -- how ironic.
Posted on 05/31/2006 12:53:27 AM PDT by FreedomCalls
Astana, Kazakhstan (AHN) - Firefighters were struggling to put out a massive fire that engulfed the top floor and half of one side of a 32-story skyscraper in the Kazakh capital Astana, says AFP.
Fiery debris falling from the upper floors threatened to spread the blaze throughout the building which houses the former Soviet central Asian state's transport ministry.
Employees were evacuated from the 130-meter (427-foot) skyscraper and no casualties were reported, officials said.
Around 1,000 people normally work in the building.
This is what it the skyscraper, Astana's tallest, looked like. It resembles a cigarette lighter -- how ironic.
Eeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttssss niiiiiiiiiiiiceeeee!!!!!!
-Borat says....
The fire at first. It's impossible to get a ladder up that high.
It's really beginning to break out now.
What's so nice about this fire?
What looks like glass seems to be burning like paper. What gives?
Tallest office building in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana - Transport Tower - on fire
ASTANA, May 30 (Itar-Tass) -- The tallest office building in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana - Transport Tower - was on fire. There have been no immediate reports of casualties, the Emergency Situations Ministry has told Itar-Tass.
Firefighters’ attempts to cope with the blaze that has engulfed the whole building have been unsuccessful so far.
The tower is 136 meters tall. It has 32 office floors and four logistics floors. Its rooms’ floor space totals 32,000 square meters.
Spreading down the elevator shaft.
Firemen at work trying to put it out.
Eight injured by fire in Astana Transport Tower
ASTANA. Eight were injured as a result of a fire in Astana Transport Tower, Kazakhstan Today reports citing the Ministry of Emergencies.
In particular, according to the Ministry of Emergencies, during the fire extinguishment 6 members of the Ministry fire brigades were injured. Besides, two unidentified persons have applied for the medical aid.
The fire broke out yesterday, May 30, at 4.09 PM in the roof and upper floors engulfing 1,200 square metres of the building surface and 600 square metres of the interior of the , Transport Tower where the Ministries of Transport and Communications is located.
The fire extinguishment services put out the fire at 7.33 PM. There have not been any human deaths. 170 persons and 36 specially equipped vehicles of the Ministry of Emergencies participated.
Mostly out.
Just a little smoldering left. You can see the extent of the damage on top.
Fire extinguished at Kazakhstan building
By LILYA ERZHANOVA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- A fire broke out Tuesday on the top floors of a 32-story government skyscraper nicknamed "The Lighter," sending flames and smoke billowing high above the capital of Astana.
The building was evacuated, and only one woman suffered from smoke inhalation and two firefighters were slightly injured by falling glass, said city ambulance service chief Gulnara Sydykova.
The fire, which broke out about 4 p.m., was extinguished in about two hours, according to the building's manager Svyatoslav Nogai.
The fire appeared to have started on a 27th-floor balcony, although its cause had not been determined, the Kazakhstan Today news agency quoted Emergencies Minister Shalbay Kulmakhan as saying.
The building houses the ministries of transport, information and industry and other government agencies.
Bolatbek Bilalov, a building security official, said in televised remarks that internal phone lines were used to alert and evacuate the roughly 2,000 people working in the building.
Berik Bekzhanov, an Information Ministry official who was working on the 29th floor when the fire broke out, said alarms failed to go off. He said he and his colleagues began to leave the building by stairs after smelling smoke and told people on lower floors along the way also to evacuate.
Authorities also evacuated the area around the 426-foot building, a modern, glass-sheathed structure known as "The Lighter" because of its shape.
I think it's just the intense heat. Aluminum burns at a fairly low temperature (as far as metals go anyway).
It looks like burning plastic.
I pretty sure he meant the building.
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