Hilton Plaza Fire Forces Evacuations
By: Dylan Brooks
Updated: March 2, 2011
MIDLAND -- A fire forced evacuations in downtown Midland Wednesday.
The blaze broke in a laundry room at the Hilton Plaza around 9:30 AM Wednesday, after some lint in a dryer caught fire. Staff members were able to put out the fire, and there wasn't enough heat to set off the sprinkler system. But smoke set off the fire alarms, and about 150 people were evacuated from meeting rooms.
The Midland Fire Department was called in to check out the building, and they made sure the area was ventilated before letting everyone back in.
"Of course you're nervous when you have a potential fire," Hilton Plaza General Manager Keith Dial told Big 2. "But our thoughts are -- we've been trained pretty well internally. My people responded exactly as they should have. Everyone went to the stations they were assigned to. The non-essential personnel -- they just emptied the building like they were supposed to and they were standing out here with the clients. So everybody did their jobs."
Dial added that the evacuees were outside for about 40 minutes.
No one was injured in the fire.
The blaze broke in a laundry room at the Hilton Plaza around 9:30 AM Wednesday, after some lint in a dryer caught fire. Staff members were able to put out the fire, and there wasn't enough heat to set off the sprinkler system. But smoke set off the fire alarms, and about 150 people were evacuated from meeting rooms.
The Midland Fire Department was called in to check out the building, and they made sure the area was ventilated before letting everyone back in.
"Of course you're nervous when you have a potential fire," Hilton Plaza General Manager Keith Dial told Big 2. "But our thoughts are -- we've been trained pretty well internally. My people responded exactly as they should have. Everyone went to the stations they were assigned to. The non-essential personnel -- they just emptied the building like they were supposed to and they were standing out here with the clients. So everybody did their jobs."
Dial added that the evacuees were outside for about 40 minutes.
No one was injured in the fire.
