Seems like an act of hubris to put up a 79-story skyscraper in Dubai and name it The Marina Torch. Isn’t that sort of asking for fate to intervene? Had the builders never seen (or heard of) The Towering Inferno?

So, The Marina Torch, often known simply as the The Torch, got some global notoriety today for a fire that began on the 51st floor early this morning and apparently swept right up to the top of the building, the 79th floor.

Luckily, no one was hurt, and the fire seems to have been limited to balconies and other structures outside the living areas of what a few years ago once was the world’s tallest residential building, at 1,103 feet.

But it got a lot of attention around the world, given that all TV stations everywhere love nothing more than video of a burning building in the middle of the night. And here is video from the BBC. Oh, and a third video, from The National, in which a key factor in the fire becomes audible — the strong winds that have been buffeting the UAE. Wouldn’t take much of a fire to pick up speed in that kind of wind.

But The Torch is the name you want for your tower? Really?

Perhaps none of the people involved in the planning, financing and construction of the building knew about The Towering Inferno. Or they embraced the dangerous concept of “it can’t happen here.”

Still, if you’re building a really big building … you just don’t call it The Torch.

Early speculation is that cladding somehow caught fire, and might have been flammable.

This is a very upscale building, as well. This slide show on The National’s website shows the views from the penthouse of the building, and they are pretty impressive.

And speaking of expense, when the story was written, last year, the penthouse, all 6,500 square feet of it, was selling for 13.5 million dirhams — which is $3.7 million.

Even basic one- and two-bedroom apartments are expensive there, and however long residents are kept out of the building, even if it is for their own safety … well, those are people who probably know how and where to complain.

Anyway, a fire in a really tall building. If it is going to happen anywhere, it probably will happen in Dubai — if for no other reason than Dubai has 73 buildings at least 656 feet high, and the tallest can be found at this link.

Living that high off the ground has seemed creepy to me. I would not want to live that far up. (Could be simple acrophobia.)

I would prefer to have a chance to climb down via hook-and-ladder fire engine.