A fire shuts down the downtown Phoenix Sheraton hotel for the weekend, displacing 800 guests.
Downtown Sheraton evacuated; no injuries reported
The Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel will remain closed throughout the weekend as officials investigate the source of an electrical fire that filled parts of the building and nearby city streets with thick, acrid smoke late Saturday morning.
Officials from the Sheraton and the city of Phoenix, which owns the hotel, scrambled Saturday night to find lodging for the about 800 guests who were evacuated.
Phoenix Fire Department Capt. Troy Caskey said investigators suspect an electrical fire was put out by the hotel’s sprinkler system. Engineers were surveying damage to the building, which is at Third and Van Buren streets.
Shanna Wolfe, a spokeswoman for the Sheraton, said she didn’t know how long the closure will be beyond today.
Some of the guests were relocated to the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel about five blocks away at Adams Street and Central Avenue, according to hotel and fire officials.
With the power out Saturday, Sheraton guests were escorted to their rooms to gather their belongings, Wolfe said. Emergency power was on in parts of the building Saturday night.
John Weaver, in town from Australia for a project management conference, took the evacuation in stride.
“You can’t stay at a hotel with no power, mate,” Weaver said as he gathered his bags to leave the hotel.
About 100 firefighters and at least 10 engines responded Saturday. Firefighters wearing protective breathing masks went in and out as hundreds of onlookers lined the sidewalks outside.
Hotel guests filed out the doors as fire alarms blared and police and fire crews blocked off the streets and sidewalks around the building. The hotel, which was booked at about 80 percent capacity, was safely evacuated and no injuries were reported, Caskey said.
Guests were instructed to wait out the evacuation at the nearby Phoenix Convention Center.
No flames were visible from the street, and most of the building appeared undamaged. Caskey said crews weren’t using water to extinguish the smoke because it was suspected to have an electrical origin.
The hotel opened in 2008.
In an effort to boost downtown tourism and convention business, the city paid for the hotel’s construction with $350 million in revenue bonds, which are to be paid back with hotel revenue.
Scott Coniam, who was on the second floor for a software training session Saturday, said he heard two loud booms, both of which shook the building.
“It definitely shook us,” he said.
Most of the smoke had dissipated by about noon, and by 1 p.m., authorities were escorting groups of guests who had flights scheduled for Saturday to collect their belongings. Others were escorted into the parking garage to get their vehicles.
Among the guests were Angie Miranda, Rafe Sweet and Chris Johnson — friends who had met up at the hotel to spend the day seeing music shows in the area.
Sweet and Miranda are musicians and had brought their guitars for their stay.
Miranda described the moment of the reported explosions, saying she heard a booming sound before she went to check outside their room on the 17th floor.
“I look out the door and just heard wind,” Miranda said. Then a voice spoke through an intercom system instructing guests to evacuate.
The group made sure to grab their most valuable possessions — their two guitars, one of which is a Fender Telecaster.
“Grab the Tele!” Sweet said, quoting Miranda’s response to the evacuation notice.
They carried their guitars and a few bags down 17 stories to go outside and wait.