SALEM — Hampton Inn guests were unpleasantly surprised Thursday afternoon when they had to evacuate the new hotel due to a fire on the sixth floor.
Alberto Chesley, who was visiting family for the holidays from South Carolina and staying on the sixth floor of the hotel, was in the middle of shaving when he heard the sound of a distant alarm.
“At first it sounded like an alarm clock,” he said. “Then I heard someone pounding on my door.”
He opened it to see a hallway full of black smoke.
Chesley reported that the fire alarm in his own room did not go off until he had already opened the door.
The AC and heating unit in his room was also not functioning, he said, and wondered if these issues were connected.
“I’m like halfway shaven right now,” said Chesley, watching firefighters work the blaze from the street below at around 2 p.m. Thursday. “Luckily, I have this mask on.”
Jen Hudak, a Salem resident who was staying at the hotel as a safety precaution due to a COVID-19 scare, had just gotten out of the shower and was responding to some emails with a towel wrapped around her hair, when she heard her alarm go off.
“I got dressed immediately, and as soon as I opened my door I could smell smoke,” Hudak said.
“Everyone came running out at the same time and we all made a beeline to get out as fast as we could, because the whole hallway was just being engulfed in smoke.”
She exited the hotel onto Dodge Street, still holding her towel, and was grateful to hotel staff who gave her a blanket.
“Hopefully they let us back into our rooms soon,” said Hudak. “It’s a little cold out here, right?”
A group of about 20 guests and onlookers gathered with her and Chesley, watching black smoke billowing from the room from the ground below as a fire crew, police and EMS worked the scene.
Firefighters inside the building broke the window of the room where the fire had originated, showering an unfortunate car parked underneath with glass.
A crane lifted some men up to the window where they cleared away more glass with a long pole.
According to Deputy Fire Chief Scott Austin, who directed the effort, the blaze was extinguished in less than five minutes.
EMS on the scene reported that there were no injuries.
Guests were allowed back into the hotel later in the afternoon, though they had to be relocated to different floors.
Hudak caught a glimpse of the room where the fire had started when she was collecting her things.
“The whole room was decorated for Christmas,” she said. “There were knickknacks all over the TV stand, and bells hanging from the shower hooks, and a little Christmas village. It was decked out to the nines. And everything was just black from the fire.”
Hudak reported that she had heard from the hotel staff that the fire had started because of a candle in the room.
The hotel, which features 113 hotel rooms and 56 apartments, along a three-story garage, was opened to the public this fall.
Austin reported that the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
