Man straps his disabled mother to his back to get her out of the burning hotel in Dubai

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January 2, 2016 12:57 PM

A Tourist, Angus Villar described how he had to strap his disabled mother to his back to get her out of the Skyscraper Address hotel downtown Dubai which turned into a burning inferno just before the New Year’s Eve fireworks were due to start.

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A Tourist, Angus Villar described how he had to strap his disabled mother to his back to get her out of the Skyscraper Address hotel downtown Dubai which turned into a burning inferno just before the New Year’s Eve fireworks were due to start.

He told Sky News : '‘I was on the 15th floor in the kitchen opening some champagne. My father went out onto the balcony and came back and screamed ‘the hotel is on fire’. There were five of us including my mother. I strapped her to my back, it was the only way of getting out of the building. It was utter pandemonium.’'

Read: Grand-dad who married his teenage sweetheart dies after 13 days

14 people were injured after the huge fire broke out, causing mass chaos with people running for safety in nearby malls.

Angus said: '‘There were a lot of hotel staff directing people to various exits and stuff, but there was no clarity about what happened. We’re definitely still in a state of alarm. I've pretty much left everything in the flat – I only took my valuables, i.e. my phone, my iPad and my mother."

The fire which started unexpectedly completely took hold of the building ripping majority of the hotel which houses around 200 hotel rooms and 600 private apartments. It ran up at least 20 stories of the building near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper.

Burning debris slowly fell down from the building as firetrucks raced to the scene. A huge fireworks display kicked off at the Burj Khalifa as smoke poured from the nearby hotel.

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