Springfield reporter reflects on Dubai hotel fire

The hotel is at the center of the area where the fireworks display takes place, like Times Square on New Year’s Eve, packed with people staking out their spot hours in advance.

The hotel is next to the Dubai Mall and looks out over a series of patios and a lagoon with the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at the other end.

When this fire began, there would have been thousands of people standing on the patios and pavilion just outside the hotel, as well as hundreds inside the building’s multiple restaurants.