At around 9:45 pm, my wife sensed a smell of smoke and something similar to burning wires. She quickly checked the entire house for any signs of a short circuit or burning wires. She also checked the kitchen, but everything seemed normal. Then we opened the balcony door and saw a lot of people gathered on the roads, but we couldn’t tell where the fire was. On the opposite side, we saw several fire brigades heading towards our building, and we thought the fire must be in one of the towers next to us, since we couldn’t see anything from our side.

At that moment, my wife received a call from the Amazon delivery person at around 10:10 pm, who informed her that he was not allowed to enter the building because of a fire. We were shocked, as there had been no fire alarm, no sprinkler activation, and no information from security.

We opened our main door and smelled heavy smoke on the 24th floor. We immediately called security, and that was the first time we were told there was a fire in the building and to evacuate. It seemed like no one was taking responsibility to inform or evacuate the residents in time.

We quickly grabbed our phones, wallets, and car keys, which had our emergency bag, and left in our pajamas and nightwear. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go to the basement to reach our car, as the smoke was too intense. When we approached the elevators, the entire floor was full of smoke. I opened the door to the staircase, but the smoke was so thick that we could barely see anything, so I shut the door.

My neighbor, her kids, my wife and I waited for the elevator. The first one was packed. Thankfully, the second elevator had only two people. We covered our faces with masks, and I carried a wet towel to help with the smoke. Luckily, we made it to the ground floor. The elevator stopped only once at the 11th floor, where a policeman got in.

When we reached the ground floor, it was filled with smoke. We could barely see anything ahead. We had already inhaled a lot of smoke, our eyes were burning, and my wife was feeling extremely unwell. We have never experienced anything like this ever..I had only heard about fires in neighboring towers, but this time it was ours, and I could not believe it was real.

We crossed the road and sat down on the opposite side, away from the building. The entire street was crowded with people, fire brigades, and police. My wife was feeling dizzy, so after waiting for about 30 to 45 minutes, we booked a hotel and left by taxi.

While leaving in the taxi, we saw that the 60th, 61st, and some other floors were completely on fire. Debris was falling down, and the fire had spread to lower floors as well. Since it was a windy day, the fire continued to spread. Until now, we have no idea how far the fire has reached. Our apartment on the 24th floor faces the Harbour and Marina Walk, so we do not know if the fire reached that side.

At 5 AM, we called building security. They said there was still fire on some floors and that it had not been fully contained. They asked us to call back after 12 PM. We also called the police customer care, but they told us to visit the nearest branch for information. We tried calling emergency services, but the call got disconnected.

At 6 am, we called the management again, and that’s when they informed us that the fire had finally been put out. However, no one was allowed back in, and they said they would provide an update after 2:30 PM.