F. Valentino became the only victim of the disastrous hotel fire in the Dominican Republic. Images of the fire from the Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach Hotel show thick black smoke covering the idyllic holiday island.
More than 1,700 people were forced to evacuate as the flames ravaged everything in their path. F. Valentino went to the beach together with other tourists, but it was too late for her – the woman collapsed due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
The couple had come to visit the man’s family in the fishing village of Bayahibe, where they first met.
In 2014, F. Valentino exchanged Rome for life in the Dominican Republic. There she began an affair with her future husband, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, and married him in 2017.
The couple had two daughters and later moved back to Valentino’s hometown of Caserta, near Naples. A woman who used to work as a dancer ran a small bed and breakfast there.
In 2018, F. Valentino took part in the show “Mollo tutto e cambio vita”, the name of which means “All the while and I change my life”. The show tells the stories of people who leave Italy and go in search of a new life.
Then she remembered how in 2014 she quit her job as a ballet instructor in the Italian capital and decided to move.
In 2018, Valentino told CasertaCE: “I left Italy with a two-month plane ticket, but I never came back.”
“Now I’ve been living here for four years, I found love, got married and had a two-year-old daughter. I’m happy with my choice, I would never go back,” F. Valentino said at the time.
Valentino was pronounced dead after Friday’s horrific resort fire. Dominican Republic emergency services took her to a medical facility in La Romana province, but she later died of smoke inhalation.
Shocking videos of the raging fire quickly went viral on social media. They show flames engulfing a large thatched roof and thick black smoke filling the sky.
One video shows terrified witnesses fleeing the area as the fire intensifies. In another video, dozens of vacationers stand waist-deep in the sea as a fire rages in the background.
