This one was a bit north of Dubai, where the other two happened. This is the third major conflagration in a residential high rise within the past year. The first was the 79 story Torch luxury apartments in February 2015. The second was the 63 story Address Hotel on New Years Eve. And now the Ajman One Tower One complex, towers 6, 7, and 8 with 35-40 stories each goes up.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/28/middleeast...;iref=obnetwork

These bring up the issues particular to evacuating a residential high rise. At 5 stories and under, you can go outside the structure with a fire escape ladder. At 9-10 stories, the fire department can reach you. At 400-800 feet off the ground, you're really limited to evacuation down an internal stairwell. That is unless you fancy BASE jumping or rappelling down the side of a burning building.

So... knowing that you and a couple thousand of your closest friends are all headed down the same flights of stairs. How do you prepare?

The obvious:
Comfortable shoes
Flashlight
Smoke hood/respirator/???
Light weight backpack with critical documents, medications, and what else?

Given the weight constraints of carrying everything down, what is potentially over 1,000 steps, what do you take? Keep in mind that this is at a residential apartment and not an office, so you have a bit more freedom then in regards to what you can have ready.

Don't live in a high rise??(at least not more than five floors up). Why is the UAE so enamored of high rises? I would think that there would be plenty of buildable land...

An influx of oil money and western-enamored leaders (Sheik Kalifa - UAE, and Sheik Mohammed - Dubai) who took power in the mid '00s. Sky scrapers, like the Empire State Building or the Burj Khalifa, are a source of civic bragging rights.

Since the occupants can afford a prestige address, an investment in decent SCBA gear and Nomex clothing might be appropriate. I don't know of any stylish Nomex, however I am sure that can be remedied...

In complete honesty, my preparation would be "stay out of Arab high rises". It sounds like they must have pretty poor building codes, or corruption that allows working around the rules, to have so many flaming high rises in a year. Best to simply avoid them. Having appropriate gear is only one aspect of preparation. Knowing where to go, or in this case not go, is also a key element of preparation.

As I understand from the Izmit quake, the building codes in that corner of the world are quite modern. Turkey, at the time of the quake, had a building code based on California's. But, there's almost no oversight. So shortcuts and alterations, both innocent and greed driven, are common.

If you can't leave your room/apartment with it in sixty seconds from a dead sleep, leave it behind. Often getting out IMMEDIATELY is the best way to live through a fire. Be able to get your clothes, footwear and (if you need them) glasses on immediately, and if you want to bring more stuff have it packed by the door.

A few years ago I had to visit someone in his office on the 12th floor (yes only the 12th floor). It was a very small office and ALL the wall behind him was glass. Just behind his chair was a view that was, ummm, too dizzying for me.

I left the buidling , hopefully never to have to go in another one of those. A few months later, my kids wanted to go to a restaurant on top of another one of such high buildings, and I bribed them to go elsewhere.

My comfortable limit is 2nd floor.

ETA :

Regarding the question : WHY to build highrises ? I think there are a number of reasons besides prestige
For example, in some cities like Mecca everyone wants to be close (very close)to holy places. Land prices are extremely high and land itself is hilly, not flat. So, building higher buildings seems the more cost effective alternative.

I don't know much about Dubai, but I know that real eastate is very costly.

I usually request hotel rooms ( and apts ) on the 1-6th floors

Maybe a whistle, and a dust mask if you can't get a smoke hood.

To be honest I don't think I'd sweat it. As far as I can tell, none of these three fires had any serious casualties. "A pregnant woman had difficulty breathing". If I were in a wheelchair or otherwise would have trouble evacuating, then I'd probably avoid living in such places, but for normal agile people the danger seems relatively low.