An Alberta-born country singer says she’s had the New Year’s Eve celebration that she won’t soon forget as she was just down the road from the hotel in Dubai that burst into flame.
At about 9:30 p.m. local time, the Address Hotel in Dubai burst into flame, with black smoke beginning to pour out of the 63-storey building.
Mackenzie Porter, originally from Medicine Hat but now lives in Nashville, was with her family shopping in a mall connected to the hotel just hours before the fire broke out.
The 25-year-old singer was on vacation in the area and had just returned to her hotel down the street, planning on dinner when the concierge informed them about what had just occurred at the Address.
She says the Address Hotel is still smoldering and firefighters are still at the site.
14 people suffered minor injuries in the fire and one person suffered a heart attack and needed to be hospitalized.
Porter says the situation got a bit eerie when officials decided to go ahead with their famous fireworks show at the world’s tallest building while the Address Hotel continued to burn.
Meanwhile she says she has a few more days to spend in Dubai before continuing her vacation in India.
She’ll be back home in mid-January, in time to record a new album.
