Firefighter here in the Pacific Northwest, so I can speak to some general topics on fire behavior. But building code in Dubai is likely going to be as foreign to me as speaking arabic. If their claims are all true, then they have constructed the building to withstand the foam burning off the face of the building without damaging the structure. Not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Yes, foam burns somewhat hot and it presents quite a fuel load on the face of the building. The chimney effect mentioned previously will certainly cause the fire to spread upward unchecked since there really is no way to have fire-stops without a huge amount of overhang between each level to stop any lapping (flames flowing around protrusions to move to upper levels). Iām guessing this foil faced foam is used because you are trying to keep the sun and heat out of an enclosed space that you are air-conditioning. As to how it was put it, it sure looks like it went out the old fashioned way, it ran out of fuel. One maxim of the fire service is that āall fires go out, eventuallyā. Thing is, for the fire on the outside to damage the structure of the building it would need to burn around the structural members. The chimney effect is sending all of the hot air, gasses, and flames UP. Some radiant heat is being sent into the building, but not sure how much since we have no idea what is between the foil covered foam and the rest of the building. Kind of like some wildfires that burn through quickly scorching the outside of trees but never damaging the inside and the tree survives. Even with interior fires, most traditional skyscrapers survive due to building materials and fireproofing. The US bank building in L.A. burned out a couple floors and came out just fine because the only flammable materials were the furnishings. The WTC was unlike any other skyscraper fire in that it was thousands of gallons of jet fuel inserted into a structure that was designed unlike any other building.
High-rise fires are typically suppressed by sprinkler systems and supplemented by hand lines attached to standpipes running up the emergency stairwells. There are pumps and tanks at various levels to get the water there, as street pressure is never going to get it all the way to the top. It takes .5 psi to lift water a foot. So for every 5 psi you can lift one commercial story (10 ft). This is a 63 story building. Notice the tiny looking elevated master streams on the fire trucks spraying water? They are pretty much just putting out burning debris that is falling on the surrounding area. That rounded base of the building is about the first 10 stories. A hundred foot ladder truck wonāt even reach the top of that. That is why Iām amazed they built a building covered in flammable materials and DIDNāT put sprinklers on the outside of the building. Of course Iām assuming there are sprinklers inside the building, as I canāt fathom a modern society allowing a building that size without a sprinkler system. Also almost every floor has balconies all around. Every one of those is an opportunity for the fire to spread inside if a door or window was left open. That fire burned up the entire face of the building from that deck on the 10th floor.
Another amazing point if it really didnāt spread inside as they claim, is that infrared heat from a nearby fire will most certainly start fires inside of buildings through the windows. Yes, these windows probably have lots of heat blocking layers to keep out the desert sun, but the normal sun falling on the building is not enough to just cause it to burst into flames. The heat from that foam is probably putting off enough radiant heat to start a fire through that glass. Iāve seen wood fueled fires (a house that was unfinished so it had no sheetrock yet, just a big pile of bare wood) that melted the vinyl siding of houses 70 feet away. The fire burning on that large patio where base of the fire seems to be is freaking huge. It almost looks like a liquid flammable fire, but from what? Or did a large amount of the foam peel off from the fire and land on that large patio? Either way, it seems almost impossible that it didnāt spread inside on at least that floor.
To be fair, itās my understanding that it is common to only take the drawings through design development (DD) for buildings in that part of the world, and then turn the project over to the local builder. DD drawings are still somewhat schematic in nature and donāt include those pesky details like firestops which would be included in a complete set of construction documents (CDs) with a professional set of seals. In this case, by āfirestopā I mean an interruptor of some type in the horizontal joints, at least at each floor. Maybe a sealant backer rod that is made of intumescent or similar material. Dunno, not my area of expertise, but they should have done something at regular intervals.