Smoke was still rising from the remains of the lakeside hotel hours after daybreak
A fire gutted a luxury hotel popular with foreigners in Myanmar's biggest city -Yangon on Thursday morning, 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 hospitalized in critical condition.
Photos and video posted online show the spectacular blaze racing through the traditional Burmese-style 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.
My wife evacuated from Kandawgyi Palace Hotel overnight as fire destroyed iconic wooden building. So incredibly relieved she’s safe. #Yangon pic.twitter.com/BqvP0UoUBq
— ᴊᴜsᴛɪɴ ʟᴀɴᴄʏ (@justinlancy) 19 October 2017
A fire has gutted the colonial era teak wood Kandawgyi Palace hotel in Yangon. One fatality confirmed so far. @AFP photos by @ye_aung_thu pic.twitter.com/Ng8EjGMZ4C
— Jerome Taylor (@JeromeTaylor) 19 October 2017
Firefighter Kyaw Kyaw said the blaze started 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 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.
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