Organisers of the world's largest firework display at the opening of the Dubai Super-hotel, the Palm, have been held responsible for the early closing of the luxury ten star facility.
The Palm was built on an artificial island in the shape of a palm tree, with rooms starting at $3,000 a night, going up to the presidential suite at $20,000 a night. For their money, the super-wealthy would be treated to luxury on a never before heard of scale.
The opening ceremony of the hotel cost $35million, with $5million of that spent on fireworks that lit up the sky of Dubai as though the oil fields were on fire, and could be seen from the International Space Station. Kylie Minogue was flown in to sing with the backdrop of stupendous fireworks.
Unfortunately, the sequence of fireworks that blazed from every window of the mammoth hotel has caused significant fire damage to the luxurious furnishings within, something the organisers hadn't considered.
"We thought all the fire was in the air," said Exodus Molatov, the fireworks co-ordinator, "but a lot of the fire went backwards through the windows and set fire to the curtains. Oops."
The hotel will now have to be refurbished at an estimated cost of $50million. Sol Kerzner, the developer on the project said it wasn't a problem: "When we'd seen the furnishings, we realised that they weren't quite right, but it had been a bit late to change them. I just wish we'd got around to getting the fire insurance."
