The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world.
Standing at 2,722 feet or 829 meters, and 160 stories tall, Its double the height of
the empire state building.
The burj Khalifa also has the worlds highest observation deck on the 148th floor.
Birds don’t even fly that high.
Named after the leader of Abu Dhabi, It is the crown jewel of dubai, designed to give
the city international recognition.
But what would happen if the tallest building in the world, the UAE’s architectural wonder,
was attacked.
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For those of you who are thinking, the burj khalifa is in the middle east, it probably
wont get attacked, think again.
There are many reasons why someone might want to attack the tallest building in the world,
even if it is in the Middle East.
There are 900 luxurious apartments in the burj khalifa, plus offices, shops, restaraunts,
a night club and a georgio Armani designed hotel.
It’s a physical display of the wide gap between the rich and the poor in the UAE.
Dubai might seem like a futuristic, idealistic city on the outside, but there are problems
there like any other city.
Any time there’s a huge gap between the rich and the poor, resentment stirs.
The burj Khalifa was extremely expensive was one of the factors that resulted in a huge
debt pile, and that inevitably made Dubai’s stock exchange one of the worst.
So, now that you know an attack on the burj is not out of the question, what will happen
if there is an attack?
Firstly, I’ll start off by saying that 110 000 tons of concrete was poured when constructing
the burj Khalifa.
The primary structure is reinforced by concrete, not steel.
It is not vulnerable to collapse the way the world trade center did on 9/11.
The world trade center was mostly made of steel, which melted and buckled thanks to
the heat produced by the jet fuel explosions.
This set off a domino effect, causing the building to collapse onto itself.
This is far less likely to happen with the burj khalifa.
According to Greg Sang.
Emmar’s director of projects ‘a plane wont be able to slice through the Burj like
it did through the steel columns of the world trade center.
That doesn’t mean a plane hitting the tower won’t cause damage.
If a plane crashed into the building, the damage would depend on how much fuel was aboard
at the time of the crash, and the speed of the plane.
But there is more than one type of threat.
Perhaps there could be some sort of bomb threat in the future??
If there is an attack on the Burj Khalifa, what are the safety precautions?
The building can hold up to 35 thousand people at one time, and if theres a crisis, a supertall
building like the burj could become a death trap.
Because the building is so tall, if the elevators stop working, which they usually do when there’s
a fire in the building, its going to be a real hazard for thousands of residents, workers
and tourists to get dozens, if not close to 2 hundred of flights of stairs.
Luckily, the 38 elevators in the burj can operate during an emergency using emergency
power, water resistant equipment.
They elevators carry up to 5500kg and feature a lifeboat evacuation mode, which allows the
fire brigade to take occupants from the higher up floors to designated discharge levels.
In response to the increasing terrorist threat throughout the world, The burj has built in
refuge floors in case of an emergency, every 25 to 30 floors, for those who do wish to
take the stairs and who need to rest on the way down.
These refuge floors are more fire resistant, air conditioned, pressurized, and also have
separate air supplies.
The stairwells are reinforced with fire proof concrete.
The word is, dubai is also planning on equipping its fire crews with jet packs, to be able
to tackle the high floors from the outside.
Obviously if there is an attack, there will be problems that will arise, perhaps there
will be casualties, perhaps there will be damage, but the Burj khalifa, despite being
the tallest building in the world, is definitely not one that’s lacking in safety.
The time when a possible threat on the Burj is the highest is on new years eve.
On new years eve in 2013, 1.7 million people attended the celebrations at burj khalifa.
Roads closed, and people were encouraged to take public transit.
Nearby areas and streets were monitored.
Around 5 thousand personel patrol the ground to ensure everyones safety, as well as 4 thousand
security cameras in the area.
To this day there has never been a criminal case at the burj khalifa, but in the event
that there does need to be a full evacuation, every room is equipped with LCD displays that
show evacuation information.
There are trained crisis teams on duty 24 hours a day.
Do you think there will ever be an attack on the burj Khalifa?
Let us know in the comments below.
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