Tongues of flame shot skywards from one side of the luxury Address Downtown Dubai hotel and residential block, which stands across a plaza from the 830-meter Burj Khalifa tower where people were gathering for a spectacular fireworks display due to mark the start of the New Year. Television pictures showed pieces of blazing debris raining down.
The Dubai government's media office said the blaze was 90 percent under control.
"All residents of the hotel were evacuated and there are 14 injured, with light injuries," Police chief Major General Khamis Matarr said, Reuters reported.
A medic on the scene who declined to be identified said: "There are more than 60 people injured with light injuries from smoke inhalation and from crowding while in the stairs evacuating the building."
One resident staying on the 15th floor of the tower, completed in 2008, told Britain's Sky News of "absolute pandemonium" as those inside realized the building was ablaze.
"The alarms went off when the building was already properly on fire," he said.
Major General Rashed al-Matrushi, general director of the Dubai Civil Defense, said the Burj Khalifa festivities would go ahead despite the fire, saying: "Of course, it will not affect the celebration."
A Reuters correspondent saw police evacuating a viewing area near the base of the Burj Khalifa, where tourists and Dubai residents were set to enjoy one of the world's largest pyrotechnic displays to usher in 2016.
The Dubai government's media office said the blaze had started on the 20th floor, on the outside of the 300-meter tower, and that internal fire-fighting systems were operating to try to prevent it getting inside the hotel. Four fire brigade teams were at the site.