Fire forces hotel guests from rooms

A laundry room fire caused an undetermined amount of damage at the Canal Inn in Welland on Wednesday.

Platoon Chief Dave Nenadovich said Welland Fire and Emergency Services responded to the call at the hotel on Niagara Street just before 10 a.m.

The fire started in the laundry room and sent smoke across the main floor since the door was left open. As crews arrived on scene, people were already exiting the building.

“The pull station was pulled. It was activated by somebody — we don’t know who that was yet,” he said. “Probably (saw) smoke, pulled the station, the fire alarm was activated and everybody exited the building.”

Fire trucks blocked one of the northbound lanes on Niagara Street, while the rest were on property.

Canal Inn guests stood at the edge of the parking lot and the Toyota dealership next door as the alarm rang from within the building.

Many guests had on flip-flops while a few were barefoot. Others still were in their pajamas.

The scene smelled of smoke while fire crews worked to ventilate the building after containing the fire. Firefighters set up exhaust fans at the front entrances of the building to blow the smoke out.

“The fire was quickly brought under control by the attack team that went in there,” Nenadovich said. “It was a quick knockdown.”

The only damage to the building was in the laundry room area, which is around the middle of the structure on the north side.

“It appears to be in the dryer,” he said. “The cause of it, we don’t know yet.”

There were no injuries and guests were able to return to their rooms not long after the after smoke had been cleared away.

Fire prevention officers taped off and secured the laundry area as they continued their investigation into the cause.

“Fire prevention officers are just trying to put a timetable on how things led up to that event,” Nenadovich said.

He wasn’t sure the exact amount of damage to the building yet, but said if he had to put a number on it, it would be somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000.

The manager of the 80-room inn declined to comment as did guests on scene.

LAURA BARTON/WELLAND TRIBUNE Guests stand outside of the Canal Inn on Niagara Street in Welland as the Niagara Regional Police and the Welland Fire and Emergency Services personnel take care of a laundry room fire Wednesday.