Massive fire breaks out at luxury beach resort popular with tourists forcing guests to run for their lives

By WILL POTTER, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Published: 20:46, 19 June 2026 | Updated: 20:51, 19 June 2026 A huge fire broke out at a popular tourist resort in the Dominican Republic that sent panicked families running for their lives. Shocking footage showed smoke billowing from a section of the Viva Dominicus Bayahibe resort in La Altagracia on Friday.  Emergency services raced to the tourist hotspot, which is operated by Wyndham Resorts, as the fires grew out of control.  No injuries had been reported at the time of writing, with authorities saying fire crews were deployed quickly to contain the flames.  Authorities said they were working to contain the flames to the area, fearing it could spread to nearby structures in the resort, reports Dominican Today.  One witness said on social media that firefighters were struggling to extinguish the fires, writing: 'Although fire trucks are already on the scene, the magnitude of the blaze exceeds the available equipment and greater support is required with higher-impact units to fully extinguish it.'  The cause of the fires is not yet clear.   A huge fire broke out at the Viva Dominicus Bayahibe resort in the Dominican Republic on Friday Shocking footage showed smoke billowing from the resort as panicked tourists ran for their lives  Emergency services raced to the tourist hotspot as the fires grew out of control No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.