High-Rise Disasters
Below is a chronology of previous disasters in some of the world's tallest buildings.
Nov. 23, 1995 A blaze in the basement of New York's Empire State Building filled the skyscraper with smoke. Hundreds were evacuated as more than 40 fire engines dealt with the fire, believed to have started from an electrical short circuit.
Jan. 17, 1996 London's NatWest Tower, the tallest office block in the city's financial center, caught fire but no one was injured. Dark smoke billowed from the 600-foot, 42-story building.
Nov. 21, 1996 Fire in Hong Kong's Nathan Road tourist shopping street turned into a towering inferno, killing 40 people and injuring 81. The blaze in the Garley Building was the worst in a building on record in the then-British colony.
Feb. 23, 1997 A fire at Bangkok's President Tower, a 36-floor complex on Ploenchit Road which includes a hotel, shopping plaza and office building, killed three. The seventh to tenth floors were destroyed.
April 7, 1997 Nine died in a fire in a 20-story block in Kowloon's Mei Foo district.
Dec. 8, 1997 At least 14 people died in a fire that engulfed the top floors of a new tower block in Indonesia's central bank complex in Jakarta.
Jan. 5, 2000 Fire erupted on the roof of a 32-story office tower in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of workers. No one was injured in the blaze.
Aug. 2, 2000 A fire broke out inside a unit on the 13th floor of Hong Kong's Immigration Tower, injuring 47.
Aug. 28, 2000 Fire struck Moscow's Ostankino TV tower, Europe's tallest structure, crippling TV broadcasts across Russia and killing three people.
Sept. 11, 2001 Two hijacked planes are flown into New York's 1,400-foot twin towers of the World Trade Center causing the buildings to collapse. At least 2,800 people are killed.
Jan. 5, 2002 A 15-year-old student pilot, Charles Bishop, flies a stolen single-engine Cessna into the 20th floor of the Bank of America building, a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida, killing himself and slightly damaging the building.
April 18, 2002 A small Piper aircraft crashes into the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan setting the top floors of the 30-story building on fire.