In a second incident within three days of the commencement of FIFA Women’s World Cup, co-host New Zealand football players were evacuated following a fire at their hotel in Auckland. The team although is safe and accounted for after the Saturday, July 22 fire, confirmed NZ football in a statement.
The statement read it “can confirm that the Football Ferns team and staff have been temporarily evacuated from the Pullman Hotel, their team base for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, due to a fire.
“All of the team and staff are safe and accounted for.”
The police have arrested a 34-year-old for burglary and arson, reported the Associated Press. It, however, remains unclear if the incident is related to the ongoing world cup.
“A man has been arrested following a suspicious fire at a premises on Waterloo Quad, Auckland Central last night,” police said. “The 34-year-old has been charged with burglary and arson and is due to appear in Auckland District Court on Monday.”
CJ Bott, defender with the football Ferns, said that some players did encounter smoke but everybody made it out safely in the end. The players spent a few hours at a nearby restaurant while the fire was brought under control, added Bott as reported by the Associated Press.
“Yeah, one of the fire exits was a bit smoky but the majority of us got down the other safe exit and we exited the building perfectly fine,” said Bott.
“We had really good security on board that gave us really good instruction and we all kind of dealt with it pretty well,” said forward Gabi Rennie. “I think our team is pretty good with dealing with adversity. So it’s just another kind of test.”
Notably, a fatal shooting had occurred on the morning of the first day of the tournament near the team hotels. NZ, during their 1-0 win against Norway on Thursday, July 20, kept a moment of silence for the victims.
The co-host play their next match against Philippines on Tuesday, July 25 in Wellington.
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