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A FIRE RAGED in a 40-storey skyscraper in the Chechnya capital Grozny today, a building which is a centrepiece of a drive by local authorities to promote the city as a glitzy and modern hub.
State television pictures showed a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky and clinging to the sides of the building with bursts of yellow flames snaking down the facade.
“The fire broke out at 6:15 pm (1415 GMT) in a 40-storey uninhabited building in Grozny-City,” the emergency situations ministry said in a statement on its website.
(SergeyLification/YouTube)
“We have no reports of casualties… The fire is currently spreading across the building’s facade via the plastic outer panels,” the spokesman for the North Caucasus regional branch of the Emergency Situations ministry, Kantemir Davydov, told the Interfax news agency.
Eighty firemen were at the scene, the emergency situations ministry said. The interior ministry also confirmed there were no casualties.
A witness photograph posted on Twitter showed flames and smoke pouring from the building in the Grozny-City complex named the Olympus tower, which is topped by a giant clock face and stands 145 metres tall.
The complex of skyscrapers is a key symbol of the once war-torn city’s rebirth under strongman local leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov feted its opening in 2011 with an open-air concert featuring pop singer Seal and violinist Vanessa Mae and with guests including US actress Hillary Swank and action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.
(juryvs/YouTube)
The glitzy gala, which coincided with Kadyrov’s 35th birthday, culminated in a firework display over the skyscrapers.
Russian media reported that Kadyrov handed French actor Gerard Depardieu keys to a five-room apartment in the complex in February after President Vladimir Putin granted him Russian citizenship.
NTV television reported that Depardieu’s apartment was in a neighbouring skyscraper to the one on fire.
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Is boggles the mind that war torn 3rd world arm pits can build world class skyscrapers and other modern infrastructure and here in Dublin it’s almost impossible to get a few decent tall buildings due to all of the restrictions by agencies that refuse to accept that cities are living organisms. ..
Even in a suitable area such as part of the docklands. … roll on the red thumb brigade
Someone’s never been to Liberty Hall…
As far as world class goes, yep its a nice looking big tower but just for a minute look at the video clip and ask yourself how there is so much fire spread up the outside of the building, the article mentions plastic panels! Plastic! Have seen a similar clip of a tower block externally insulated that took off like a roman candle! Anybody that reads this, that lives in a timber framed house or externally insulated one, leave the wheelie bins away from the house, be it hot ashes or vandalism that starts a fire in them, they burn at a ferocious rate and can lead to your whole house being consumed by fire.
Vlol…. Unfortunately Yes I have. ..more times than I care to count. … although the revamp looks good. … even tho bord plonker opposes it
that tower wont be world class in the morning
Very good point Marc this is something that really pisses me off… Stand in the Docklands and look towards O Connell Bridge and the only buildings of significance ( not saying custom house is insignificant) are the Ulster Bank, Liberty Hall, and the Convention centre.. All Large buildings we needed to go higher what a waste of all that lovely credit and not a stand out 20+ story apartment block !!!
What Dublin needed was a mini type city built on the outskirts like Milton Keynes or Canary Wharf. with a decent public transport joining them. There is nothing wrong with our capital, it would look beautiful we’re it not for liberty hall and those horrible banks. Eye sores.
Liberty hall is grotesque but the planned replacement was beautiful …but hey let’s stand in the way of this… Ulster Bank buildings are excellent and nice to look at .. Try standing in the Royal hospital in kilmainham..on the western avenue entrance and look easterly towards the city.. Two buildings stand out ..the sail type design at Hueston South Quarter and the new courts at parkgate street. New, modern buildings stunning design and the don’t impact negatively on their surroundings in fact they greatly enhance that view. It’s just a pity we didn’t have more of these
Totally agree baz… watched the shard go up in London and it’s stunning. … Unfortunately some people think our city is a personal museum and they run the planning boards. ..until they go I doubt if anything will change. … like the examples you gave too
I wonder will this steep structure skyscraper come down in freefall speed, defying the law of physics when the steel somehow melts at temperatures several hundred degrees below it’s melting point due to fire.
I see we have an expert on metallurgy and civil engineering on again.
It would if it was struck at full speed by a fully fuelled passenger jet.
Care to enlighten us as to which law of physics was broken?
Btw: steel can become soft and start to Yield (depending on the alloy) at much less than 1000 degrees C
You are being pathetic b Lowe!
Well actually thay building is on fire. The buildings ye are talking about were not. Hence the massive smoke that came from them. You dont see massive smoke plooms coming from the about pic.
Exactly Bowe……wonder will the building collapse ?? It will still be standing absent some explosives to bring it down…..
And what passenger plane hit building 7 in the WTC complex Jack Bauer? None, apparently that fell due to fire only.
Never agreed with mr Lowe before. But he has a point on this one.
I agree with B Lowe too… the story behind Tower 7 is a scam!!
What’s going on. Has everyone lost the ability to spell.
Don’t get me started about crackpot theories.
Not all buildings are the same. If they were you wouldn’t need engineers to design them. I can’t be sure but it could be a reinforced concrete building, which usually perform better in fire. The Madrid tower that burned was mostly RC but the upper steel portion of it collapsed.
Structural steel doesn’t need to melt to become Structurally unstable, the strength of steel is reduced at high temperatures
You should be called Not So Slow Harry!
Look at that building in Spain that was a complete fire ball and it still didn’t fall down.
I don’t believe the 9/11 conspiracy theories at all. Too many people would have to be in on it. But I only heard recently that tower 7 came down as well, it does make you wonder… But again, too many people would have to know. Not possible
Very possible Paddy , a team of 50 over a 6 month period of course it is possible , you are very naive.
Not naive at all, I’ve seen all the documentaries and they do ask loads of interesting questions but still don’t buy it. I can’t see the motivation behind the government doing it. To invade the afghans? I don’t think so
Well if you only heard about building 7 recently then how can any opinion you give be taken seriously.Happened 12 years ago man.
If 50 people knew about it then we would have heard from one of them by now, and 50 would be too small to even take care of the demolition of the towers, never mind all the planes.
I’m not sayin my opinion has to be taken seriously, I simply don’t think it’s an inside job.
I know what your saying.i don’t either,inside job is a stupid term.theres just something not right about the whole thing.Theres just so many things that don’t add up.Im no conspiracy theorist,I just like to do my own research and go from there
Re Paddy.
Have you now Paddy?
Ask yourself this. How is it that the US government kept the Manhattan Project a total secret? No one knew about it until the bomb went off. Tens of thousands worked on that.
Also Paddy look up ‘Where did the towers go?’ by Dr Judy Wood I think. It deals purely with facts, offers no conjecture and leaves you with a chill down your spine.
Will do b Lowe, I shouldn’t have said I’ve seen all the documentaries.. I haven’t but I’ve seen a few. My only problem with the conspiracy theories is WHY would the government wanna do it? What did they have to gain?
They got to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, securing vital fuel reserves and removing two anti-American regimes at the same time. Win-win for them.
@jamie . So the bush administration thinks “we wanna invade Afghanistan, how are we gonna convince everyone we need to do it, I know, fly a couple of planes into the world trade centre and blame bin laden” I don’t believe that for a second, also why all the weapons of mass destruction carry on with Iraq. I know there’s lots of feasible points in the docs but i just think its too far fetched. I’m finished with this now. Ye believe it, I don’t. Agree to disagree:-)
Re Paddy.
I’m not lambasting you here or anything but the first thing you need to realise is that the official explanation is itself a conspiracy theory.
Look up the definition of a conspiracy theory.
Once you have that done, head over to the Voltaire Network website and read their latest article on Abu Zudabayah.
Then switch off mainstream media sources.
Paddy, research PNAC. I
Two words for you paddy . Operation northwood , check it out .
Wow it’s definitely going to fall , building 7 wasn’t burning anywhere nearly as bad as that .
Paddy during the Cold war and the bay of pigs episode involving an American plan of invasion of Cuba, the secret service went to JFK with a plan to precipitate an invasion of Cuba.. they wanted to take a commercial liner, bring it below radar, replace it with a drone above radar and use this as a ploy to say ” they’ve hijacked one our planes, it’s an act of war..” Kennedy rejected the spooks and their scheme. JFK got shot dead by spooks. It’s all there to research..
Fair one Jamie, I’ll look it up. I know the yanks r ruthless when it comes to protecting their own interests. Dick Cheney was a dodgy character, would put nothin past him. I’ll keep an open mind. Sleepy time now
The Russians nearly destroyed Grozny when they were fighting with the Chechens, I wonder if is fire might be related to the insurgency?
Built by Tom Mc Feely?
fire spreading along plastic outer panels !!! looks like their building planners are as good as ours when it comes to fire regulations
Don’t be silly, Jamie!
If they had called Depardieu he might have got his hose out and put out the fire .
He should have bought in Bulgaria. Similar outcome only without fire.
I bet you that building won’t fall straight down
Would recommend ‘The New Pearl Harbour: Disturbing questions about the Bush administration and 9/11′ by David Ray Griffin. Also ’9/11 contradictions’ by the same author which highlights major inconsistencies between the official 9/11 commission and other agencies/reports/interviews etc… It is imperative that people can think critically and ask questions about major world events without people immediately assuming they are ‘conspiracy theorists’ which nowadays seems to automatically translate to ‘not credible’.
Ah bit like what FF , FG, lab has done to this country sent us up in flames while they just sit back and and warm there feet.
Feck sake there’s always one.
Snap
Hope nobody was injured. R.I.P.!!!
Moving shadow
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