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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Tina Campbell

Happy Days star Henry Winkler thanks firefighters after being evacuated from hotel in Dublin

Henry Winkler has revealed he was caught up in a fire evacuation in a hotel in Dublin.

The 78-year-old veteran US actor and director - who is best known for playing the character Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli in cult 70s sitcom Happy Days - is currently in Ireland to promote his memoir Being The Fonz... And Beyond.

According to local reports, six fire engines were deployed to the fifth floor of the Shelbourne Hotel in the city centre on Wednesday morning.

The blaze was said to be brought under control in less than an hour.

Taking to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Winkler uploaded a selfie showing him alongside with some of the fire fighters who had tackled the blaze.

Henry Winkler is best known for starring in US sitcom Happy Days (PA Archive)

“Thank you Dublin‘s fire department… our hotel was evacuated on our first morning !!!” he wrote in the accompanying caption.

Winkler, who has also starred in movies including The Water Boy (1998), Click (2006) and Black Adam (2022), was equally full of praise for the crew who came to his and others guests aid while talking to RTE News, describing them as some of his "favourite human beings. Firemen and firewomen. They run in when other people are running out."

Recalling what had happened, he said: "I thought someone had set the alarm before we got there, like another guest. And finally I went into another room and it was still buzzing so I called downstairs and the woman said in a very calm voice, 'yes, we are all evacuating, you must evacuate right now'. And I left."

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