2nd Alarm Hotel Fire - Temporarily Displaces Guests
This morning, October 24, 2022 at 12:51 AM South Burlington Public Safety Dispatch received a call from an occupant at La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham South Burlington at 1285 Williston Rd., stating that there was a fire in their quest room.
Moments later, the dispatcher received a call from the hotel fire alarm monitoring group reporting a smoke alarm activation and a sprinkler flow alarm from the same location.
Firefighters arrived in less than 4 minutes and were met by hotel staff who confirmed a fire in room 119, and that the building was being evacuated. Staff believed the guest had evacuated the room. Firefighters entered the South wing of the hotel through a closed fire door, and immediately encountered a moderate smoke condition in the hall, with visibility of less than 7 feet. A group firefighters entered the fire room conducted a primary search and worked to extinguish the fire, which had been held in check by the building sprinkler system. Other firefighters began searching guest rooms on the first floor of the wing, and other section of the hotel. A total of nine guests were escorted from the building by firefighters.
The fire was extinguished at 01:10 hrs. and the second and third floors of the south wing were ventilated of smoke by 02:00 hrs. Firefighters worked with hotel staff to re-occupy the building, with all guests being resettled in the hotel by 0300 hrs.
At the time of the fire, 50 of the 108 guest rooms were occupied, with approximately 70 guests.
There were no reported injuries to guests or firefighters. The building is full ensured. Damage to the building is estimated at $150,000. The South Burlington Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the fire and is awaiting third party testing of several electrical items to determine the origin of the fire.
South Burlington Fire Department was assisted during this incident by: Vermont Air National Guard FD, Burlington FD, UVM Rescue, and St Michael’s Fire-Rescue
Several factors contributed to the successful fire operations at this fire:
- The guest immediately called 911 to report the fire, while the fire was in the incipient stage
- The fire department was on scene and operating at the fire is less than 10 minutes.
- The fire alarm system operated properly and alerted guests to evacuate while the fire department was responding.
- The Hotel fire sprinkler system kept the fire to the room of origin.
- All fire doors and guest room doors were closed limiting the spread of smoke from the fire room and the first floor south wing.
Original source can be found here.
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