Company loses bid to recover payout for Dubai hotel fire

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An insurance company that was ordered to pay more than a billion dirhams in damages for a 2015 New Year’s Eve fire in Dubai has lost a civil lawsuit that it filed to try and recover the money. Two years after the massive fire rocked the Address Downtown hotel, Orient Insurance was ordered to pay Dubai’s state-backed developer Emaar 1.25 billion dirhams in a settlement. “The report confirmed our client’s position that it had properly constructed the work that it was mandated to construct,” said Mohamed ElGhatit, a lawyer representing government-owned ALEC Engineering and Construction. Authorities say they’ve changed fire safety rules in the emirate to address the danger.