One dead and 1,700 people evacuated from the Viva Wyndham hotel

The upscale Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach resort, located in the Bayahibe area of ​​the Dominican Republic, was the scene of a violent fire that claimed the life of a 46-year-old Italian tourist and led to the emergency evacuation of 1,700 people.

The blaze, which occurred last Friday, also left nine people injured, three of whom required immediate hospitalization, while six others were treated at the scene by emergency services.

While the director of the Emergency Operations Center (COE), Juan Manuel Méndez, stated that an official technical commission was working to determine the exact causes of the tragedy, initial findings point to the rapid spread of the flames, fanned by the wind and fueled by the very structure of the buildings, whose roofs were traditionally covered with palm leaves.

Although the COE quickly announced that the fire was under control and that all affected customers had been relocated to nearby hotels, the Italian diplomatic mission had to deploy a large-scale crisis cell to assist 285 of its nationals present on site, organizing the urgent issuance of temporary passports to replace documents destroyed by the blaze and coordinating logistical operations for their immediate air repatriation.