[A] luxury six-story hotel in downtown Burlington was evacuated Tuesday night after a pizza oven caught fire in a first floor restaurant, sending flames shooting through the roof and causing surrounding street closures. Officials said there were no injuries.
Guests and employees at Hotel Vermont were still gathered near the entrance at 10:30 p.m. as fire engines idled outside and firefighters moved through rooms in the upper floors.
Peter Brown, a deputy chief of the Burlington Fire Department, told reporters just before 11 p.m. that firefighters responded at 8:44 p.m.
The fire started in a pizza oven on the bottom floor, shot through a vent and set part of the roof on fire, Brown said. The interior of the hotel was not damaged, and no one was injured.
Emergency responders had an ambulance and stretcher on the scene, but there was no one to attend to.
Anjanette Fowler said she was eating at the Hen of the Wood restaurant on the bottom floor of the hotel when the fire alarms went off and she ran outside.
“The whole street was filled with smoke,” she said. “It was like fog, you could see it billowing off the hotel.”
The flames could be seen rising above the Burlington skyline in a photo shared by WPTZ meteorologist Eric Weglarz.
We can see the glow and smoke from the fire on the roof of Hotel Vermont, @RossMyNBC5 is heading to the scene now! pic.twitter.com/mRN0Vn8KLN
— Eric Weglarz (@EricMyNBC5) August 7, 2019
Seven Days news editor Matthew Roy tweeted a photo of fire coming from the roof of the hotel.
Can’t see any flames now; firefighters were on the roof. Looked as if it was some kind of mechanical area on the northeast corner of the six-story building. pic.twitter.com/3LYBjujFvQ
— Matthew Roy (@Emroy) August 7, 2019
Kim Wynkoop, a guest at the hotel, said she was asleep in her room when the commotion began.
“When I opened my door I could smell smoke,” she said.
At that point, Wynkoop said hotel staff had not told guests when they might be able to go back inside.
Fire chief Brown told reporters Tuesday night he wasn’t sure whether guests could return to their rooms.
“I’m hoping that we get to go back,” Wynkoop said.
