sandra: thanks dr. samadi for being here being our #oneluckyguy. we're back on tv monday noon eastern time. happy new year everybody. "happening now" starts right now.

the fire work's display at midnight and that could be a possible cause. down the street from the world's tallet the skyscraper in dubai. it is 10:31 local time. we'll give you the information the residential building up in flames. in other fox news alert. the fbi busting up a new year's eve terror plot targeting a restaurant in upstate new york. the 25-year-old suspect fromro chester received directions directly to attack the restaurant from isis operators overseas. we'll talk about that development and with our terror

expert here. all of this on "happening now". >> now, this is the last time i will have to do this. >> historic flooding in missouri. rising waters top levees and close home. and highways. how long this threat will last? plus white knuckle ride. turbulence rocking passengers and leaving some of them injured when the plane final lowlands. and the key to losing weight in 2016. it is all "happening now". we begin this hour with historic flooding in the midwest. rivers and streams cresting around st. louis as the area grapples with the highest flood

water in centuries. >> the rising flood waters are blamed for 21 deaths in illinois and missouri. authorities evacuating neighborhoods and shutting down miles of the interstate as families await news that it is safe to return home. rick has more. >> right around the st. louis area that's where the crest is at the third highest level ever. by the time it gets south of st. louis it will be highest ever. when you think of the historic floods back in 1993 that some of us remember and in 2011, it is january. and incredibly cold and all of that water takes weeks to get down here. and the the lines in green, they are flooding that is going on in the rivers and all of that it water has to make its way in the

mississippi and out. there is a long ways to go and temperatures will remain cold. all weekend long temperatures will be below temperatures. if you are getting relief and cleaning up and digging out it will be very cold and dangerous. a rough weekend in store. one good piece of news, obviously new year's eve, any precipitation will be southeast and down in south texas, but the rest of the country is looking great. going forward the next seven days, no significant precipitation coming. we'll see a front moving through thursday and friday and saturday rain. but at this point it doesn't look that significant. all of the activity for the next number of days is in the west. that is good news. we want to see the rain and snow pack. saturday and sunday in parts of

california and in towards the southwest, temperature wise for today. cool where we have the flooding going on and not exceptionally cold anywhere which is good news and going toward new year's day. temperatures could be worse this year. but the flooding, it is chilly. >> 82 in miami. that is one exception. none place where we see the yellow, okay. rich, thank you very much. >> you bet. in another fox news alert, a major shake-up in the republican campaign of ben carson. two top political aides quitting the campaign. his campaign manager and communication's director resigning as carson continues to slide in the polls. in the meanwhile donald trump ramping up the attacks on the

clintons saying he had no choice. he called both clintons one of the great abusers of the world. for more on all of this, there is a bouncing ball live in dc, hi, rich. >> reporter: the campaign manager and communication's manager quit. the des moines register citing sources they resigned because of tensions with a conservative radio personality advising carson. we expect a statement from the campaign shortly this as donald trump offerses a relentless takedown of hillary clinton and her husband who had an improper relationship with a intern while he was in the white house. he calls her a great abuser. she came out with sex sxichl that is nonsense and can i hit her back and talked about the

husband and abuse of women. it is tremendous abuse. >> reporter: trumpy began the attacks when clinton said trump had a penchent for sexism. in a statement, hillary clinton will stand up to him as she has from the beginning. donald trump's words are demeaning and policies are destructive. hillary clinton will challenge donald trump. and the clinton campaign is feeling criticism from governor chris christie and senator marco rubio in iowa. they will have an opportunity to scour another batch of her e-mails from her personal server. the state department will have the latest court ordered release this evening. back to you. >> thank you, rich. greg? jonna goldberg. and rebecca is political news editor in the washington post.

good to see you both. jonna, i want to get your reaction to ben carson losing two top aides and campaign manager and what is going on? >> this is a big problem for ben carson. it comes on him plummeting in the points. the long knives are out situation. i don't have firsthand reporting about it. but they haven't had their mojo for a while now. and it seems like people are jumping ship. we'll see. >> rebecca, let me move on to iowa. all eyes are focused on the state because it is the first in the nation contest. why is it that no so called establishment candidates are expected to win in iowa and how dew see this thing shaking out.

>> the interesting thing, a lot of establishment candidates are not expected to win are spending time on the ground in iowa. why are they doing that? they want to make sure who ever wins iowa and right now they think it would be donald trump or ted cruz doesn't run away with it. and the other thing that they are trying to do is, they want to consolidate the establishment vote. the lane, ted cruz is talking about. if they can consolidate that support, only one can come out in new hampshire. >> bush and rubio and christie campaigns, they think there is anywhere from 25 or 35 percent of the electorate up for grabs and undecided according to their survey. and could someone's fortunes change in iowa over the next five weeks? >> i think so, absolutely.

and what is strange about this, normally it is the base that has a hard time consolidating around somebody. and if the establishment guy, who has a clear path. and this time, the establishment is in chaos which everyone is fighting to be the establishment guy, and meanwhile ted cruz is largely locked down big swaths of the conservative block. and then trump has crowded out everybody else from that area, and so now, it is simply a fight for the spot that mitt romney and bush had in the past and they all think they can get it. >> rebecca, it so manies moderates are trying to stop ted cruz and donald trump who have dominated the iowa polls. is the wild card a guy like marco rubio who has conservative

and moderate cross over appeal? >> absolutely. that's why you will see cruz in the ground in iowa. he is the one candidate is viewed as someone who can consolidate and bring the the establishment vote in and run away with that. and on the other hand, put in the conservatives. and i think it is interesting in this conversation, we are not mentioning ben carson. we'll start to get information. there is turmoil in the campaign and taking its toll. >> rebecca, and jonah, thank you for being with us on the new year's eve day and happy new year's to both of you. >> happy new year to you. thank you. another fox news alert. the mother of the so- called

affluenza teen is a roined and the two were hiding from american authorities after ethan's apparent violation of his probation of the deadly car crash. johnathon hunt joins us in los angeles. from the headline of tonya couch being arrested. we had a question, why was she brought to l.a. first before going back to texas? >> reporter: i will explain all of that to you. right now, she is in the custody of the los angeles police department and set to stay here several days as they sort out procedures for getting her back to texas. it is a courtesy to texas authorities and she was flown here from mexico, simply because no seats available in this busy

p time of year on any commercial flights from mexico to texas. she was escorted to lax by half dozen u.s. marshals and charge canned with hindering an apprehension and helping her son escape to mexico after his alleged probation violence. on that charge she could face ten years in jail and her son ethan couch is transferred to a holding cell. and a judge in mexico has three days to consider the case before making the next ruling. u.s. marshals expect the whole process to get him back here considerably longer than that. >> it depends on the court system and the couches have legal council and if want to drag it out as long as they want

to. >> reporter: so once again ethan couch's parent's honmoney is keeping him from american justice just as it did in 2013 when that money paid for a psychologist to testify that his wealthy upbringing that he didn't know right from wrong. if he is brought back to the u.s. he can be sentenced to 120 days to the probation violence. ten years for his mother on helping him get to mexico and only 120 days for her son who actually killed four people in that drunk driving accident, arthel. >> isn't that ironic. johnathon thank you. a fire broke out as you can see in a residential build nothing dubai. we have seen better ones with the flames. those look like the smoke from

what is described as the address downtown dubai hotel and residential building. five- star hotel. and very close to the birj, which is the world's tallest building. there was supposed to be a fire work's display close to the buildings, but that is not for another couple of hours. nobody knows the cause of this so far and no reports of injuries. but the flames have been going up the side of the building and in it for the last 20 minutes or so. we'll continue our live coverage in a moment.

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you can see it several of the floors there in all, 63 stories i believe. >> yes, 63 stories tall. it is the address hotel. connected to the dubai mall. and so this again 10:19 local time. this fire started just before there was supposed to be a major fireworks display in dubai. it is it a popular hotel, this hotel. there has to be in there as flames crawl up to 20 stories high alongside the building. you can spend a day visiting. there is 1200 shops attached to the hotel and mall and up the street from the birj, that is the world's tallest skyscraper at 153 stories tall. and so this building has been in

flames and this is live pictures from dubai tv. the flames are still racing and that means that the firefighters have not yet opinion p able to put it out clearly. hopefully it is contained to 20 stories of the 63 story tall building. there are no injuries reported at this time. >> you got to think that there were people inside of the building and a new residential building and hotel. and got to be people still trapped inside and may be fatalities. we just don't have it. it just unfolded in the last hour. the flames began to escalate in the last half-hour and spectators say there is debris raining down everywhere from the building. it is a new building. >> what about the sprinkler system. you can see it is really in

flames here. it is it 10:20 there in dubai and folks are there. it is it a popular location for folks and visitors to visit especially on the holiday, looking to see what was supposed to be a fireworks. the organizers said the birj was fitted with 400000 led lights and then from there, the fire workings were to light up the sky around the sail shaped birj al- arab. and down by the dube down marinna. boy, this is a total catastrophe happening in dubai ua e, united arab emirates and one hopes that most of the people got out of the building in the initial stages of the flames. >> we are looking at live tv in

down down. when we see flames like this on a day like this. on new year's eve. it makes people think what is behind this and if there is a sinister plot involved. i want to bring in steve rogers who is a retired detective in our studio, detective rogers, lieutenant rogers you were here to talk to me about the preparations for the new year's eve times square event. what do you saw to folks about this? >> what is important that people wait until they get the facts. unfortunately the first reaction is terrorism. in this case, it may not be that. but it is very important that people just take a step back and take a deep breath and wait for the investigation to be completed and then you take it

from there. >> obviously you are a detective and we wanted to talk to you on counter terrorism and you have been on the scene and you can see the flaps see bright and red and what can you tell us about the fire fighting efforts. >> can can they get the equipment or have the equipment necessary to put it out. it is it a fast- moving and rapidly moving fire and going right up the building. as a nonfirefighter, one would think accelerant put in that and was it planned? we are not experts. that is for them to happen. if it is it a terror connected incident, we have serious problems. >> these are live pictures dubai tv. i would like to know what the

weather is there if we can get him to speak with lieutenant rogers here. looking at the flames weather playses an effect be in terms of wind et cetera. but the concern is not only firefighters getting to this accident lieutenant. but someone is inside of the building. it is a five star hotel. it is it a popular place in downtown dube down, blocks away from the world's tallest skyscraper that stands at 153 floors. this particular building is 63 stories tall. again, folks have to be in there and when you see flames like this. talk to me about the evacuation process. if the firefighters can't get in to put out the flames can they get to the people. >> not only dealing with flames but smoke. as we look to the building to the right. there is lights on and people in

that area. there could be people on the roof. i don't know of any fire department that has ladders to go 63 or 64 stories, they may bring in helicopters to get people off of the officer if they are up there. but the flames are so intense and the real change as people go up is the smoke. you hope to got people got out in time. but it doesn't look very good. >> these flames do look bad and at this point, we don't have reports of injuries, as we wait to see how it unfolds. we are told that 1.6 tons of fireworks were going to be used in the display to show the near by berj where they were going to start. i haven't been there and i am

not sure exactly how far. >> i might add what we touched on, there are investigators on the ground no doubt trying to determine the cause of the fire to make sure there is no terrorism connection. and if not, they have to let the people know there is not and vice versa and let people know we have a problem here. >> it is an excellent point. last thing you need in fact we can only assume people are trapped inside. the last thing you need is panic. they are already afraid and nervous and anxious because of smoke seeping under the door and last thing they need to do is pan and i can concerned about a terror plot. to your point, lieutenant the more they communicate with folks who are trapped inside. the better and usually hotels, of course, five star hotel such as this one would have a pa

system to communicate with people inside of the hotel. any possibility that that communication system would be disabled in a tragedy like this? >> it is a good question. obviously that intense fire it could be. but people have cell phones and people have the ability to communicate through social media and that's why transparency. and timeliness is important. if they can't get intercom you can be sure they are on the cell phones and social media is a good way to communication. timeliness and truthfulness and acacy is so important. >> they are watching the television. and a civil defense official came out and said there are no injuries from the dubai hotel fire and new year celebrations will proceed which seems

incredibly curious given what we are seeing on the television scene. the flames appear to it be be so intense one wonders about the structural integrity of the build anything who the building could collapse. the heat from those flames have to be incredibly intense and ability to military i would imagine just about anything. and unless water and extinningishing ingredient is put on the flames. >> keep in mind your first responders. you will have a large number of first responders putting their lives in danger. i learned one thing. all of these people who come on from different places, and give information. best sourceses are the command people on the ground. they are the best sources for accurate information.

>> you have debris raining down as well. and threat to first responders is incredibly high. and their lives are seriously in jeopardy. >> and you have to figure the roads are blocked off as people gathered for the fire work's display show that is supposed to start a block away. we look at live flames at the live television there at 10:29 local time. i to bring in chris brown who is a firefighter in providence, rhode island. i am not sure you can see the flames on your television set. what can you glean from what you are seeing? >> this is happening on new year's eve when everybody is out celebrating and assume all of the downtown hotels in dubai is full is terrible. you know upon, the building is

heavily involved. i began watching it on on periscopes that were broadcasting it there. and it grew swiftly. you don't know if it is just the facade or the interpior or structure itself. kwhaefr it is, it is it difficult to fight. and difficult to get water above 6 or 8 floors. and then, i don't know what code is over in dube down. we have sand pipes here. and water is pumped in at ground level and carries it to the upper levels and so the firefighters can fight the fire. you hope they have rq used

and i heard a couple of introduce of people, a few minutes ago, where somebody had managed to escape the 42nd floor and get out. and so that's good news that people in the hotel had enough

warning, and that the means of egress were open enough for people to get out from 40 floors. >> you raised the question of the building's material. why would it be so flammable. modern buildings are using materials that retard flames and are equipped by building systems. it makes you wonder about the structural integrity and the flames. what are your thoughts on that? >> i think that defends on how heavily involved the interior versus the facade of the building. i don't know code in dubai and i will not begin to guess. but you would hope their codes are similar to ours.

with sprinklers and sand piped in. and you hope it is on the exterior and not in the core of the building. >> it looks like something is working. we are watching the live pictures, it looks like the lower floors. the fire is out and probably to your point, they would fight it from the ground and here at least, they can reach up to. by the way this is tape from earlier. i am not sure about the live pictures right now. typically here, you fight it from the ground up. >> yes, from what i understood, on periscope when it started initially. it looked like it began on the lower floor. they would not have gone above. that would put it out on the

ground and working their way up to put it out. it is it very dangerous to go above a fire and let it burn unchecked underneath. snushgs talk to us about the coordination of the firefighters and first responders trying to evacuate the building. >> evacuation in a four story building is difficult. i can't imagine what they are going through now. how quickly the fire spread, i think a lot of people that got p out would have self evacuated. i am not sure that once they got there, it seemed like it burned so quickly. and hopefully people were evacuated and they were able to self evacuate. >> how many stair well access do

you think is available in a building like this. 63 stories tall and modern and newly built? >> numerous. and you hope 6- 8 at least. if one sides is involved and compromised. and the hotel guests can go the other way and hit the star wells on the other side. >> it is hard to tell from the pictures on tape and live pictures we had a short time ago, whether it was fully involve would all the way a round and inside or the building. we can't determine that. it might be a part which people can get out? >> you know just the exterior is involved, and you are not directly affected by the heat, the smoke is a mange factor. situations like that, you cannot

breathe above the fire. the smoke is going to come in. and that's the most dangerous thing about building fires like this. and the lesson is, if you are in a hotel, learn the exits in comparison to your room and when alarmses go off head to the exist exit. what if you are blocked. you try to find another stair well or go up as a last ditch. you hope you can get to the point where the fire will not get to you. because people talk about helicopter rescues and that's virtually nonexistent. you can see one in 20 years. probably the only one that happen in 20 years. mr. brown if you could stand by

to us. john was set to talk about the new year's eve celebrations around the world. and this breaking out thursday at two hours ago now. what can you tell us from your vantage point. >> i can tell you about the hotel. it is it a busy area in downtown dubai and a popular tourist destination. there are restaurants and a number of other hotel ands close to the water and also a marinna there, so again, it is a busy populated area and there's also some apartment buildings. but a little bit about the address hotel. 63 story hotel, it is it a little over thousand feet. and located not far from the birj which is the world's tallest skyscraper. and it is in that shadow. we should be careful to point

out we don't want to speculate as to the cause of the fire. we are not hearing from authorities and officials at this point. unclear if anybody is trapped. it doesn't look like at this point, but again, i want to be very careful not to speculate and then there is a lot of the other questions. but we heard that evacuations have been under way according to witnesses and people are posting pictures and some of the witnesses, they said it started and engulfed the building very quickly and spread to 20 floors and again, that could be higher. and it could have grown since it started as you mentioned arthel. whether they have it under control. there are some saying it is under control. but it is it not the case tis it very much burning. and a lot of questions can close

to their fireworks display. and unclear if that is going to happen. certainly that is not the most important thing at this point. really, is everybody out of there in and did they get out safely? what are they doing to contain the fire. >> it is curious, john. as we watch the flames. it is new year's eve and hotel. five star hotel and got to be occupied and we are hearing from major general rashid, who is the general director of the dube down civil defense. he was on a live broadcast, and he said there are no injuries, thank god, of course, it will not affect the celebration. meaning the fireworks will go on as scheduled. it seems inconceivable that there are no injuries and my

implication of people trapped and they will go ahead with the celebration. >> reporter: well, you are right and i saw that as well. but again, this is still fluid and developing. but keep in mind it is developing and the fact that they are continuing with the fireworks, if that indeed happens, we'll see about that. that is inconceivable. >> john, stand by. art? >> i want to go to our chief meteorologist rick. you are looking at live pictures in dube down. this building is still engulfed and talk to us about the weather conditions that play a major role in how firefighters tackle the flames. >> it is one of the first thing

to look to. wind can make it go faster and tox iks federals that could be bad for humans. temperatures are 73 degrees there is no precipitation at all. it is in an area that doesn't get a lot of precipitation. humidity levels and clouds, nothing to speak of. and winds at nine miles per hour. for fighting it, obviously they have all kinds of other difficulties, but weather is not something that is causing problems for them right now. >> that is good news to report here, that you are saying 73 degrees there in dubai, winds are only nine miles per hour. you know, a lot of people are there. this address hotel had 244 guest rooms. and i want to, do we have chris

brown, the firefighter from rhode island. >> yes, i am here. >> we got a report from our chief meteorologist, i asked him about the weather conditions and i am not sure you heard. >> yes, i did listen. >> with that information at hand talk about the fire. >> the good news is the wind is down. i am not sure in the 70 story or so that the wind is nine miles per hour. wind driven fires are killers. it makings fire behavior hard to predict. the wind changes at 9 or 10-15 miles per hour. it can blow torch through the building. i know new york city has lost

firemen on wind driven fires and the affects they have on buildings and survivability. that is a huge concern. and just to comment on what the general said earlier that no one was hurt and they will carry on, i hope that's the truth. you know, if that is how it stands, it will be one of the greatest rescue operations ever. i can't imagine getting all of those people out of this build asking went from this fire and i saw it, it looked like on the second floor to the 20th floor in 20 minutes. >> the fire had started on the 20th floor. you know, we don't know if that is reliable information and a building this tall just looking at the it abstractly from a distance it is it hard to see where the 20th floor would be be but does that change the

dynamics? >> the problem you face there is getting the firefighters and the water to the 20th floor that takes time. we recently had a fire on a 25th floor in a building in providence. and we train and it took 25 minutes on the fire on the 20th floor. and so, it is it a prolonged operation and takes a lot of manpower and muscle. it takes everything to make sure it is working from the sand pipeses to the pump. there is a lot involved to it get water up 250 feet. >> we are looking at live pictures here. bofth these squares are live producers. i am not sure, we are going in and out of live shots from dubai tv. these pictures are from moments ago, chris brown and looks like they are battling flames as they

are prom nept on on the right side of the building. >> it is going to be a difficult fire to actually put out. they can knock it down and hopefully the sprinklers will do that. and go to mop it up and make sure that everything is out and that all of the people got out is a long prolonged operation. it is not like they are going to do this and shoot off fireworks and not know that building is still burning. >> i am on a bbc website and people are down loading pictures and you can see people running away from the building there. and i have to tell you you, it looks fully engulfed here. tourist michelle duke who is visiting dubai. all of the sudden, we saw a huge

plume of black smoke coming between the hotel and flames burst out big. before we knew it. it was covered in orange flames and so yeah. it does seem fully involved. it happen quickly and turn about standing near a building is collapses and verrandas burning away and on videos i was watching. there were huge empers blowing in the wend and blowing 1 or 2 blocks. and i have sewn some running away from the fire. this is real and if the fire started on the 20 g floor it could have been drop down fire falling down in the street and

igniting the building which is another problem be when you are trying to fight the fire and all of the sudden, you have them going through due to drop down fire. >> we are seeing pictureses of people running from the area. how does that complicate firefighters from getting to the scene. you you have to worry about people running perhaps in front. >> people do get in the way, they have to get away. and so, it is adapt and over come. that's what we do. we are presented with a situation and it could be be in our line of work it could be pretty much anything. they call us for that and one of the things we have to deal with is the humactor and you work around what you can work around and do whatever your assigned job. and if you are assigned to go in the building that's your deal

and somebody else will tend to the injured people and that kind of thing. >> we will show you. on the right hand side of the scene. this is the same building normally with no fire and pictures were taken prior to the fire that took place that started an hour and half ago in the dubai, united arab emirates. and on the willful of the hand side of the screen cutting away on dubai tv. and now back to the building aflame. does that give you any idea of whether this fire might be on one side of the building. >> that shot really doesn't. it is before and after. i did however, one of the periscope videos that i was watching, i had two going at one time. and one of them of i am not sure

the south side. and the other was north. and you can tell the south side was the facade was fully involved. and there was fire breaking through on the north side through verandas and rooms. it looked like rooms in the hotel. there was fire moving throughout the building. the question is how heavily involved in the scale and core will it be. npossible for the flames to go up the facade but not the core and part of the building would be accessible to get out? >> it is possible. vua good sprinkler system and they are running on the interior of the building which is how it is set up and knocking down the fire as it tries to come in and water from the sprinklers would knock it down.

that's the idea of sprinklers to knock it down on the inside of the building and allow the firef water flowing through the sprinkler system and put out the interior fire. so there is a chance most of the interior could have been spared and could have been mostly an exterior fire. in some spots it was breaking through the interior where either there weren't sprinklers involved, weren't installed. you don't know. but there are ways fire can still get in the building. >> i will tell you i'm looking at one downloaded picture that was shot from the top of the building about half a mile away, probably a mile away. it looks like just one side of the building is on fire. i see no flames on the other side of the building from this picture that was posted on the internet. so maybe, you know, this civil

defense general, who said everybody got out, nobody has been injured, is right. although, that seems inconceivable. i suppose it's a possibility. >> it may have worked. if their codes are similar to our codes and their sprinkler systems were working, the fire alarm system, if it was fully functioning, it may have sounded the alert soon enough that everybody was able to get out before too much of the building got involved or filled with smoke. >> the building is seven years old. speaking of which, are you surprised it did go up in flames so quickly and massively considering it is a fairly new building make it's 7 years old. >> i don't think surprise is the right word. fire does things we don't expect all the time every day. you know, it happens. this stuff happens.

no, it's not surprising it happened. you hope it doesn't. you hope that we build buildings, you know, the people are kept safe and the fire is kept to a minimum. the reality is we're not perfect and fire is unpredictable. it will get you. >> i'm getting a better picture now of people on the scene downloading pictures on the internet. one person had a picture of the hotel, again, 63 stories tall in which the other side is completely not involved with fire. there are no flames on one side of the building. but the flip side of the building, the other side of the building is engulfed in flames almost fully. so it's curious but maybe it's just half the building that's burning. most of the picks we've been watching over the last 52 mince since we began covering this are on one side. let's hope that's the case.

>> you mentioned fires are unpredictable. so are people in these situations. i want to bring in lieutenant rogers and then i'll get back to you, chris. lieutenant rogers from the new jersey police department having been on teams like this and the unpredictability of people when they are panicking. how does that factor in? >> right now saving lives, it's up to the first responders to give firefighters pathways to get to the fire. they are certainly going to get people into an area where at the very least they can talk to them, question them." i saw people coming out of the area. firefighters could tell you this, people who start fires stay at fire scenes just to know what's going on. law enforcement and the fire department will be coordinating

a lot of efforts, then calm things down. at the moment, priority save lives, coral people. they have to be talked to by police as it progresses. >> chris, how is that from your perspective as a firefighter? >> say that again, you broke up. >> i wanted to get back to your point where you said earlier, you mentioned how fires were unpredictable. i said people are unpredictable involved. how does that affect you in terms of a firefighter, save the people, save the building? >> fire is unpredictable. when you've dealt with it a while you learn how it behaves. my 25 years i've never been able to learn or predict how people

beha behave. you never know which way a person is going to go, upstairs or downstairs, hide. you never know what's going to happen. the number one priority is safety. that's the main concern to figure out where people are going, what they are doing so you can get to them and bring clarity back into their heads so you can lead them out of the building or have them evacuate. it's a scary thing to be lost in a fire when have you no fire protection. >> chris, stand by. we're looking at the dubai hotel, five-story, 263 meters tall, 62 stories. let's go back to john. let's talk boult how busy the area is?

>> there are already -- they were tens of thousands of people there. this is a busy area, as i said earlier, a popular tourist destination. there is a number of hotels, restaurants, close to the arena, downtown financial district. then of course in the shadow of the burj khalifa hotel. there were already tens of thousands of people. it's worth pointing out today international s.o.s., a travel security company that puts out warnings put out that that area would be under tight, heavy security, a number of road closures. already there was a heavy amount of security for cautions under way already. you're seeing the video, people evacuating. as you mentioned, the major general with dubai civil defense said on a live broadcast in

dubai that the fireworks events were still going to go on as planned. as for that you're talking about three separate fireworks, burj khalifa, 1.6 tons of fireworks were going to be used in these three displays. again, we're waiting to find out more about what may be the cause of this. that major general, as i mentioned, said at this point there are no injuries and everybody was able to get out of there. but clearly it's still a developing situation, a very critical situation there. so we're continuing to follow. a lot of people on social media as well tweeting and putting information out there. >> john, thank you very, very much as well as chris brown. we sincerely appreciate it. >> we want to thank the nutley

police department. 10:57 local time, 1 hour and 3 minutes away from midnight where there was supposed to be a massive fireworks display in downtown dubai as we look at pictures of the address hotel in flames. starting two hours ago now, 20 stories engulfed of the 63-story tall building. nearby the burj hotel, if you're familiar with the downtown dubai area. the world's tallest skyscraper. no word of any injuries. the last word, the government in dubai are going to continue, as planned, with major new year's eve display, fireworks there, to celebrate bringing in the year of 2016. >> we've been looking at a variety of pictures downloaded by pictures on the internet.

you get different perspectives from a distance. it appears in the photograph only one side of the hotel is involved in this. we hope that's the case, it's like an optical illusion. the hotel is across from the burj khalifa, the world's tallest. they continue to insist there nobody was hurt and the fireworks display is still taking place. >> that is going to do it for us here on "happening now." we're going to continue to cover these flames there as you see happening in dubai with patty ann brown up next on "the real story." a massive fire tearing through at least 20 stories of a luxury hotel in dubai, just

hours before new year's celebrations were about to get under way. i'm patty ann brown in for gretchen carlson and this is "the real story." the fire roaring at the address hotel next to the world's largest skyscraper, burj khalifa. debris raining down as firefighters battle those flames. so far we don't know if anyone was injured. the reports are no from officials. we also don't know if anybody is trapped inside. the fire is some 20 stories high, around 900 yards. 1.6 tons of fireworks set to be used in fireworks displays. john is live in jerusalem with the very latest for us. hi, john. >> patty ann and the major general you mentioned saying no one was injured. again, as you said, said the fireworks event would go on as planned. said earlier, inconcva