The Normal Fire Department was called to the hotel just after 7:30 a.m. for a report of a fire in the Caffeina’s Marketplace Cafe.
Hotel operations were unaffected by the blaze.
Heavy damage was reported to the cafe itself and water damage throughout the lobby. A dollar estimate of damage was not available by Thursday afternoon.
No injuries were reported in the incident, according to the NFD.
An employee attempted to use a fire extinguisher but the hotel’s sprinkler system was activated to slow the spread of the fire, according to a release by the NFD.
An alarm sounded and hotel employees assisted guests to evacuate safely.
The NFD reported the atrium smoke evacuation system activated and began rapidly ventilating the smoke from the atrium while firefighters pulled hoses into the building to extinguish the fire. The fire was deemed out in about 25 minutes. Firefighters searched and extinguished hot spots and used tools to open up the ceiling space and some of the wall spaces within the café to look for fire hidden in the void spaces.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
