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Fire crews responded to a smoke alarm, but they did not find any fire or hazard
After more than two hours of entertaining her devoted fans, singer Laura Pausini was getting ready to wrap up her concert at the Kia Center Thursday night with a performance of Ricky Martin’s “Livin La Vida Loca.”
“In just a moment it all switched and suddenly we’re all rushing out of the building,” Angel D’Angelo recounted.
D’Angelo and his boyfriend had traveled from Tampa to see the artist they bonded over on their first date. And the night could not have gone any better.
“He actually handed me a ring and proposed to me,” D’Angelo told News 6’s Mike Valente Friday. “So I said, ‘Yes.’”
In keeping with the romantic vibes, about 20 minutes later, Ricky Martin’s face appeared on the big screen, fueling speculation in the crowd that the Grammy Award winner would join Pausini on stage.
“We’re like, “How perfect is this? We just get engaged. One of the most iconic gay artists in the world is about to come out and perform,” D’Angelo recalled. “And then I look and I see on the side screen, and it says ‘Emergency, calmly proceed to the nearest exit.’”
That is when the alarms started blasting.
“Because I didn’t know what was happening and we do live in quite scary times, it could’ve been anything,” D’Angelo said. “So I wanted to be as far away from the building as possible. I wasn’t sticking around to find out.”
A spokesperson with the Florida Fire Department told News 6 that crews responded to a smoke alarm and “upon investigation the found no fire/no hazard.”
A follow-up email to OFD asking what might have triggered the alarm was not answered as of Friday night.
News 6 also reached out to the Kia Center Friday, but did not receive a response at the time of this story’s publication.
We did, however, find a post on X that the Kia Center made in response to a user’s question about the concert and the evacuation.
“Near the scheduled end of last night’s performance, a fire alarm was activated,” the Kia Center’s X post read. “It was determined that there was no threat. We want to thank our guests for their understanding.”
D’Angelo said that despite the premature exit, the night was still a success. He is, though, interested in hearing back from the venue.
“I do think that it would be wonderful if we could get some kind of refund or some kind of credit, especially if Laura was going to be in Florida anytime soon,” he said. “I would love to actually get to see the whole concert.”
A Laura Pausini representative said none of the openers were paid because they didn’t sing and the concert was cancelled.