“In the island resort world, you have to be prepared for anything,” said Jean-Christophe Nager, GM of Huvafen Fushi, Maldives, in the Indian Ocean. On January 3, he was woken at 1 a.m. by his security, saying that another island resort was on fire and how many evacuees could he accommodate?
Gili Lankanfushi, an island resort owned by Singapore-based tycoon B.S. Ong, had a fire in its presidential villa, a three-floor overwater palace, with a rooftop-high water chute into the ocean, at 11 p.m. the previous night (no one was injured). Exacerbated by a balau wood framework that had dried out since the resort opened in 2002 and by unusually high winds, the fire leaped to, and then destroyed, seven nearby overwater villas.
“Gili Lankanfushi knew they had to evacuate. It was just after New Year, and who would have space? As it happened we had been full over the festive season, but we had a two-night trough before another big influx of guests. We surprisingly had 11 of our 43 villas free, and thankfully cleaned, that night,” recalled Nager, a Swiss national.
The refugees, who included a Japanese family who had been in Gili Lankanfushi’s presidential villa, arrived after a 20-minute nocturnal boat trip, provided by Gili Lankanfushi. They were wrapped in bathrobes and towels. None had thought to open their safes to get their passports and other valuables, all of which were lost. (Everyone, by the way, did have their mobile phones, but no chargers.)
“Even at that hour we opened our boutique and equipped them with T-shirts and undergarments. In the morning we contacted embassies, as many were anyway scheduled to fly home that day. We got explanatory letters and guests were able to move as scheduled,” the unexpected host explained.
Huvafen Fushi, which is 30 minutes by speedboat from Male International Airport, knows it cannot rely on Male’s fire and emergency support. The Universal-owned resort, independent as of this month, has 220 employees, of whom 15 are in its fire committee.
“This regularly practices once a week and we also have random exercise drills,” said Nager. “There is a meticulous annual audit by the Maldives Defence Force. As well as the challenges from so much wood, our villas, like most on the islands, are thatched with palm fronds which would also burn easily.”
Artificial thatch is available but it is five times more expensive: The 121-villa Waldorf Astoria Maldives, which opens in May, is completely thatched with artificial, from Indonesia. Typically, throughout the islands, smoking is allowed only on villa terraces, in stated areas of bars and restaurants, and outside.
The fact that there were no human injuries at the Gili Lankanfushi fire meant world news was really not interested, which is a good thing. “We have not had a single cancellation at Huvafen Fushi,” said Nager.