A fire attributed to “unattended cooking” led to the evacuation of approximately 40 guests from a Carle Place hotel on the evening of Monday, Feb. 23, according to fire officials.
The blaze, which erupted in a guest room at the Homewood Suites on Westbury Avenue, forced the guests to be relocated to the nearby Springhill Suites.
The fire was reported to the Nassau County Fire Marshal’s Office shortly after 10 p.m., triggered by both a 911 call reporting a “smoke condition” and an automatic fire alarm notification.
Carle Place Fire Department Chief William Geddish led a team of about 40 firefighters from six departments— Carle Place, Garden City, Mineola, Roslyn, Westbury and Williston Park—in quickly evacuating guests from the building and ventilating the smoke, officials said.
The fire was stopped in about 20 minutes and held to the room where it started, due in part to the hotel’s automatic fire sprinkler system, officials said. No injuries were reported.
Nassau Chief Fire Marshal Michael F. Uttaro stated that the hotel room had “serious damage” which is being assessed by an inspector from the Town of North Hempstead Building Department.
An initial investigation by fire marshals and detectives from the Nassau County Police Arson and Bomb Squad confirmed that the fire originated from unattended cooking in the room.
