A late-afternoon fire today forced the temporary closure of a Peosta hotel. Centralia-Peosta firefighters were called to Quality Inn & Suites at about 4:30 p.m. today after a fire was reported. Scanner traffic indicated that the hotel had been evacuated and that smoke was spreading in the bottom floors.
Ray Stephan, assistant chief for the Centralia-Peosta Fire Department, said the fire began in a small entryway in a staircase leading to the first floor. “The sprinkler head was going off as we entered the building,” Stephan said. “We found it was a combination electric heater and air conditioning unit that had shorted out and burned.”
Nicole Minnihan, a sergeant with the Peosta Police Department, confirmed that guests were present at the time of the fire but said there were no injuries. “Right now, the accommodations (for the guests) are still being worked out,” Minnihan said as of about 5:30 p.m.
Stephan said at 6:10 p.m. that the hotel’s status for tonight was “in limbo.” He said hotel staff were pushing to keep the hotel open, but that the establishment could not reopen until sprinklers were back in service. He noted that a pipe was damaged during the fire.
Minnihan said the fire was contained to one space inside the hotel, but smoke spread beyond that area to damage other portions of the hotel. She said the fire had been extinguished by 5:15 p.m. In addition to Peosta police and firefighters, officials with the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene. “Everything is still under investigation at this point,” she said.
An Oak Ridge hotel that was shuttered after a fire prompted the evacuation of all guests early Saturday morning is expected to reopen either late Monday or early Tuesday, Oak Ridge Fire Marshal Travis Solomon said. The five-story, 112-room Comfort Inn at the corner of Rutgers and Illinois avenues was about 90 percent occupied, mostly with students participating in rowing practice and with off-road enthusiasts, when the fire was reported shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday.
The blaze was in an air-conditioning unit at one end of the fourth floor, Solomon said, and the fire department is still trying to determine what ignited the blaze. The hotel’s sprinkler system was activated by the blaze and helped suppress it, he said. “That shows that sprinkler systems, they not only save property, they save lives. It could have been a lot worse.”
The fourth-floor hallway was filled with thick black smoke, and firefighters had to assist people disoriented by it and help them down the stairwell, Solomon said. Three people were initially missing during the evacuation, and hotel staff “did a fantastic job determining who was missing and needed to be found.”
All were located. One person was evaluated for possible smoke inhalation but didn’t require medical attention. Solomon said hotel personnel found other hotels for the guests. Thirteen firefighters and seven firetrucks responded. The fire department is inspecting the hotel’s fire alarm and sprinkler system, Solomon said.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
