Early morning blaze
One body found in charred remains of Kandawgyi Palace
Fire rips through luxury Myanmar hotel.
YANGON: A fire gutted a luxury teakwood hotel popular with foreigners in Myanmar’s biggest city of Yangon, causing one death.
Firefighters who carried a body out of the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel said the victim was male. It was unclear if others were killed or injured.
Local media reported a woman from Macau was hospitalised in critical condition.
Photos and video posted online show the spectacular blaze racing through the traditional Burmesestyle building before dawn.
Smoke was still rising from the remains of the lakeside hotel hours after daybreak, and dozens of firefighters were at the site.
Firefighter Kyaw Kyaw said the blaze started at about 3am and may have been set off by an electrical fault. Exploding gas cylinders hastened its spread, he said.
Kyaw Kyaw said one firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation.
The teak upper floors of the hotel were destroyed and the blaze also appeared to have swept through the cement ground and first floors.
Adrienne Frilot, a tourist from California who escaped the blaze, told local news site Frontier she heard no fire alarm and initially thought the hotel staff who knocked on her door for minutes were drunken guests.
“We realised that something was wrong and opened the door and we smelled the smoke and then evacuated immediately,” she told the publication.
“The staff were so helpful,” she said.
The hotel was built in the early 1990s, incorporating a colonial-era British rowing club. It is currently owned by the Htoo Group, a conglomerate controlled by Tay Za, a businessman who prospered under Myanmar’s former military government.