The fire seems to have started on a balcony. Possibly some idiot lit up a box of fireworks. Not even the news media are blaming terrorists.
The cladding, once alight, has highly flammable fuel, lots of heat and plenty of oxygen, so it will burn really well.
whilst it may stray into political territory as a conclusion - most likely causes of ignition in a public-occupied 'soft type building (i.e. not industrial, manufacturing, commercial) is firstly arson, then followed by smoking.
I noted when last in Beijing they still have smokers room scattered around the place in the hotels (if not outright allowance to smoke wherever you see fit). I believe the high incidence of smokers in the UAE would also mean smoking in a hotel would potentially be acceptable. Maybe someone can chime in who has direct experience?
also those explosions the news stories were reporting are most like just part and parcel of a regular old raging inferno in a series of combined spaces. Possible they were relating to natural gas reticulation releases, but a room with an inferno inside will locally ‘explode’ also quite easily so wouldn’t look into that too much as contributing factor or cause i.e. terrorism bombing
modern skyscrapers generally are fireproof with respect to total building loss/collapse.
(please don’t talk about twin towers, there were significant other factors and at any rate they were not really modern anymore)
in most jurisdictions buildings they are broken into compartments of varying sizes, and these areas are fire rated to a number of hours - e.g. 150mm thick reinforced concrete floor and ceiling is 2-3 hours fire rated at a fire in standard office combustible loading.
in 2 -3 hours you can get everyone out and safe and give the brigade a fair chance to take care of the fire. Also the combustible supply will be consumed, unless you have a large generator pumping fuel into it, or uncontrolled release of natural gas or other flammables, or are doing something funky in there like storing pallets of oil or whatever.
Therefore the building will not collapse. in this way, the building is ‘fireproof’.
Nothing is really fireproof in totality though - if it has people in or around it, it can and will catch on fire at some point. been happening for thousands of years 
Richox; thanks a lot for your posts; you are a valuable addition to this board.
Are’nt dwellings filled with flammable stuff anyway; such as furniture; drapes, bedding; upholstery, carpets, paper? This was partly an apartment complex; so maybe i6s not surprising.
I will get the full fire loss investigation in my inbox in the next few days - after this weekend when offices open up again (i work in insurance industry) so if anyone is interested i can post it here when i get it, assuming its not privleged. It is amazing that the actual details nearly always differ significantly from the news media - even the legitimate sources.
Initial information I’ve received is that it was an EIFS style construction cladding on the outside and internal sprinklers activated, most likely saving the building from effective loss.
My hypothetical - if the fire had gotten any larger though, the sprinklers may have been overtaxed, stopped working (not enough water) and then fire spread could have gone inwards. And then it may have been a true disaster.
Like most well adjusted people, I get all of my world news from the website of the Daily Mail and its comment section. One of the comments, which I cannot now locate and don’t care to, mentioned something about the design of the insulation being intentional so that the fire stays outside of the building while people inside can evacuate. It sounds dubious but I know nothing about this.
I split my days between the UAE and Beijing these days. While there are lots of smokers in both places, the UAE is far more civilized than China in terms of designated smoking areas outdoors and adherence by smokers. It helps that the UAE doesn’t get cold weather which is one of the main reasons for people to smoke inside. Although to be fair Beijing has also improved dramatically in the past year or so as a local ordinance prohibiting smoking indoors seems to be actually being enforced and I have not had to endure any smokers indoors for while.
Dubious in the extreme. Makes no sense. They are used because they look nice, insulate well, are easily formed to make modern style/aesthetic choices, and are cheap. If you had no plastic cladding on the outside - there is nothing to burn. therefore there wouldn’t be any fire ‘to stay outside’
Plastics fire burn with a very high intensity - aka ‘heat release rate’. Something like double that of a wood fire. The radiant heat and direct convective thermal impingement from the external cladding would set the interior on fire, for sure.
and im not having a go at you, just the daily mail commentator
Thanks.
I am a lawyer. Thats pretty much a given IME.