Myanmar Fire
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at Kandawgyi Palace hotel in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 19, 2017. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

A huge fire broke out at the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar, on Wednesday, killing a tourist from Japan and leaving several firefighters to battle the flames for more than three hours.

The incident took place at 3:15 a.m. local time Thursday (4.45 p.m. EDT Wednesday) and within 15 minutes of the blaze scorching the Yangon skyline, 80 fire engines were struggling to bring the enormous flames under control.

Harrowing videos and pictures of the fire were uploaded on Twitter:

At the time, 96 rooms in the hotel were occupied with 141 guests, most of whom were foreigners, U Htay Lwin, a spokesperson for Htoo Group, said. Another 24-year-old woman from Macao was injured when she jumped from the hotel’s upper floors and was immediately rushed to the Yangon General Hospital.

A Californian woman, Adrienne Frilot, who was staying at the hotel at the time it went up in flames, said that she did not hear any fire alarm going off. She did hear her room’s door being pounded for quite a while but she simply assumed that it was a drunken guest. It was only when she opened the door did she realize what was going on.

"We realized that something was wrong and opened the door and we smelled the smoke and then evacuated immediately," she told local news outlet Frontier. "There was no alarm and it just sort of sounded like there were drunken people in the hallways. The staff was so helpful, as soon as I stepped out of my room with my bag, someone grabbed my bag and said, 'Turn this way,' and we went out one by one."

However, Raymond Bragg, the chief executive officer of Htoo Hospitality, who was present at the facility at the time the fire broke out, said at the press conference the fire alarm was activated. "The fire alarm was working normally," he said. Htay Lwin confirmed Bragg’s account, adding that the staff did not go knocking on the guests’ doors because the alarm failed to do the job.

The cause of the fire is being investigated by the police. Part of the investigation will also focus on whether safety and warning systems at the hotel were adequate and working. The hotel has assured their guests that it is prepared to take responsibility for any guests’ losses incurred in the fire.