Massive Fire Breaks Out in Beijing Skyscraper

A major fire broke out at China's CCTV complex, which was one of the featured buildings in the Beijing skyline during last year's Olympics.

A fierce fire engulfed a major new building in Beijing that houses a luxury hotel and cultural center on Monday, the last day of celebrations for the lunar new year when the city was ablaze with fireworks.

The building was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and is part of China Central Television’s new headquarters, an angular wonder of modernist architecture that sits astride the city and was built to coincide with the Beijing Olympics last year. The CCTV building was a hugely expensive trophy of Beijing’s pre-Olympics building boom, costing millions of dollars, and any damage is likely to be embarrassing for the ruling Communist Party.

The fire was burning from the ground floor to the top floor of the large building, the flames reflecting in the glass facade of the main CCTV tower next to the hotel and cultural center. The 241-room Mandarin Oriental hotel in the building was due to open this year. Flames were first spotted around 7:45 p.m. and within 20 minutes the fire had spread throughout the building, dominating that part of the city.

That suggests that the sprinkler systems were not operating properly, or were overwhelmed. Either scenario isn't good news, and there are reports of debris falling onto the streets below.

Here's the video:



You'll note the appearance of fireworks in front of the fire, and it's not clear whether fireworks had anything to do with the fire.

This is a developing situation.

UPDATE:
CNN has additional video from closer to the scene.

UPDATE:
Here's more detail on the Mandarin Oriental hotel that was scheduled to open in the affected building. It's the building on the left in the artistic rendering.

Other reports are indicating the fire may have started because of the fireworks display in the vicinity. The CCTV complex, including the affected building were designed by Rotterdam, Netherlands, architects Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren for the firm OMA. The hotel building also included restaurants, visitors center, a theater and exhibition spaces.

UPDATE:
The conspiracy freaks think that this fire and that the building has not collapsed as yet is somehow proof that something nefarious happened at 7WTC on 9/11. Yes, something nefarious did happen on 9/11 - airlines destroyed the Twin Towers and the falling debris from the towers damaged key structural members and the resulting uncontrolled fires led to the collapse hours after the rest of the complex.

Here's another video:


UPDATE:
It appears that firefighters have knocked down the fire:



The cause remains under investigation.