Fire Breaks Out inside Abandoned Hotel in Zamalek (Video)

A fire broke out, a short while ago, in one of the abandoned hotels in the Zamalek area, Cairo.

The fire broke out, Thursday, in one of the floor, and attempts are being made to extinguish the fire and control the situation.

The hotel is more than 50 floors tall, is abandoned since the death of  late President Anwar Sadat.

Meantime, firefighters continue their efforts to extinguish the fire on the 13th floor of an abandoned hotel.

Fire was spotted coming out of the hotel windows before the concerned authorities arrived, who imposed a cordon in the vicinity of the fire to prevent the approach of citizens and cars on the one hand and try to prevent the spread of fire on the other hand.

The story of the building

Engineer Khaled Fouda, the hotel’s owner and designer said that the idea of this building won the support of President  Sadat, to be the first skyscraper in Egypt, comparable to its peers in western capitals, and for the hotel to compete with international names, but the owner faced many obstacles even though he spent everything he owned on the project.

Yet, the presence of a hotel of this size without a garage was the main obstacle. The will cause a major crisis and traffic congestion that cannot be solved, especially since it is in the middle of an area that can not accept more parking spaces. 

The only solution was to create a garage inside the hotel due to the remoteness of the places proposed for constructing a garage outside it. 

Proposals were presented to resolve the crisis, which were difficult, conflicting with the current hotel design, and surrounding areas. Proposals were making a garage under Gezira Sporting Club, another under a neighboring villa, a third under Hassan Sabry Street, and a fourth underground garage in the remote part of the Aquarium Grotto Garden, but these requests were rejected.