Posted on 05/31/2006 12:53:27 AM PDT by FreedomCalls
Astana, Kazakhstan (AHN) - Firefighters were struggling to put out a massive fire that engulfed the top floor and half of one side of a 32-story skyscraper in the Kazakh capital Astana, says AFP.
Fiery debris falling from the upper floors threatened to spread the blaze throughout the building which houses the former Soviet central Asian state's transport ministry.
Employees were evacuated from the 130-meter (427-foot) skyscraper and no casualties were reported, officials said.
Around 1,000 people normally work in the building.
Terrorism maybe? Islamonazis returning heathen society to the 7th century? Those women aren't wearing burkas... you can clearly see their cute tushies.
Thank you for the pictures. Wow.
I am glad that so far there have not been any reports of deaths. How different from our own WTC tragedy.
Brings back very bad memories. (not that they ever left)
Ugly eyesore of a building. Now it's worse.
Try doing a search on Borat Sagdeyev who is the sixth most famous person in Kazahkstan
Evidently a plastic facade dildo building with an inefficient sprinkler system.
I'm surprised it didn't fall down like the WTCs. It looked like a pretty intense fire.
I really hate seeing tall buildings on fire ... I'm glad they got everybody out.
Good thing it started at the top rather than the bottom
They changed the rules regarding insulating the girders around the time the 67th floor was going up, too bad.
With fire suppression technology so prevalent & cheap today, I flumuxed at why it's not a standard part of construction.
Why bother to build if you can't protect it from something as ancient & probative as fire.
As Don Rickles would say,
"What a bunch of dummies, ship'um back to Ellis Island for a check-up!"
Hello,
I am a firefighter from Germany and very interessted in any further informations about the fire at the highrise building and also about the two injured firefighters.
May you tell me the adress of the Astana Fire Service?
Are there any pictures avaiable to be used at a website about firefighters safety?
I am looking forward to hear from you.
Plrease contact me via:
kuhn.bretten@t-online.de
or
dietmar.kuhn@atemschutzunfaelle.de
Best regards
Dietmar Kuhn
Wow, what an architectural masterpiece! New Jersey really does give NY (and the Empire State Building, etc.) a run for its money.
I doubt you'd get much information from Kazakhstan; you're probably better off just reading international news articles.
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