Dutch model (18) helped hotel guests after heavy gas explosion in Paris
The Dutch fashion model Destiny Imade, who is in Paris for a casting day, tells the newspaper De Telegraaf how he was startled in his hotel by the heavy gas explosion and escaped worse.
He was still in his hotel bed when the bakery exploded just four meters away. Despite the screams and panic outside, the 18-year-old model was able to keep a cool head and bring other hotel guests to a safe place.
“Actually, I had to go downstairs to have breakfast. But I was a bit lazy and stayed there. Out of nowhere I felt the heat and pressure of the explosion against my body. My first reaction was to crawl under the blanket, but the rubble fell over me,” testifies the model, which is in Paris for the Fashion Week. His hotel room overlooked the bakery where the gas explosion took place. There were three deaths and ten seriously injured. Other models also slept in the hotel. According to Destiny, a model developed a head wound.
“I first thought of an attack but immediately after: I would have heard shots,” Destiny says. He also explains how he took his sweater and telephone, and went out barefoot with a towel around his waist. Then he knocked on the doors of all the rooms to inform the other hotel guests that they had to go outside.
Bloody man who called for help
“A man with a bloody face, started to pull me and asked for help”, according to Destiny. “I saw that his girlfriend was in bed. I do not know if she was dead, but her face was in the mattress and there was a lot of blood. I did not know the French emergency number, but ran down barefoot through the broken glass. There I informed the fire brigade that they had to go upstairs to help the woman.”
The fashion model was deeply not impressed by what he saw. “I saw horrible things, a child without a mother, motionless people, their faces completely black.” Destiny also says to the newspaper that he realizes that he was very lucky because his room was a few meters from the blast.
Despite the events, the model went on to its first casting day. “If it had been an attack, I would have immediately returned to the Netherlands. But this was an accident,” he said.
“Hey guys, as a few know I was 3-4 meters from the explosion of France, I want to tell you that I’m okay, and that all other models are okay too… I thank God for watching over me… I’m glad that I am still there and have been able to come here with a few glass wounds! There is good care for us and you hear more of me :)) IM OKAY thankss❤️DR WAS A GASLEK, no attack!” the model wrote on his Instagram.
