Cairns hotel helicopter crash: Double Tree Hotel by Hilton is evacuated as horrifying footage of inferno emerges

Footage has emerged showing hundreds of people evacuating a burning hotel after a helicopter crashed into its roof sparking a massive blaze. 

Emergency services were called to the Double Tree Hotel by Hilton on the corners of Esplanade, Abbott and Florence Street, in Cairns City, Australia, at roughly 1.50am this morning.  

Queensland Ambulance confirmed in a post on social media that a ‘helicopter has crashed into the roof of a hotel’. 

Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor for the Far Norther Region Caitlin Dennings told media on Monday roughly 300 to 400 people were evacuated from the hotel. 

Footage captured by a tourist visiting Australia was shared to social media and showed the roof engulfed by massive red and orange flames. 

Huge clouds of black smoked billowed out from the top of the hotel as the blaze continued to rage. 

‘The whole building is on fire,’ one woman was heard saying as flames were seen inside the bottom floor of the hotel. 

‘Did you see it? The helicopter… it’s just crazy. I was just walking along there… I saw it going down,’ she continued.  

Queensland police declared a Public Safety Preservation Act (PSPA) and an exclusion zone was enacted encompassing Esplanade, Minnie Street, Aplin Street and Grafton Street.

More to come…