By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG
Staff Writer
November 15, 2008 04:38 pm
—
Click the Image below
for the Photo Gallery
PLATTSBURGH — A raging fire consumed the 112-room Comfort Inn and Suites hotel today causing millions of dollars in damage.
Flames sparked inside the hotel’s indoor pool and sauna area around noon and quickly spread to engulf the Court Club gym, Legends Sports Bar and Perkins Restaurant that were housed inside the hotel.
“We were doing laundry and bringing something to the Court Club when a guy ran out of the pool and said there was smoke,” Comfort Inn housekeeper Michelle Braid said as she huddled beneath a blanket and tried to stay warm in the drizzling afternoon rain.
“When we opened the door it was on fire. We ran out and started yelling and they pulled the alarm. Then we just starting running and yelling for everyone to get out.
“That was our first concern. Making sure everyone got out safely.”
Terry Meron, co-owner of the entire complex, was in San Diego when the fire started. He was flying back this afternoon.
“I’m teetering on crying all the time,” Meron said, speaking by phone from the plane. “This is just a disaster. I’m just happy no one was hurt.”
He expects to arrive at Albany International Airport at 11 p.m. and drive back to Plattsburgh.
“I’ve been communicating with a lot of my staff back there and my insurance agents,” he said. “I’ve never been through anything like this, so, I’ll be figuring it out.”
As dozens of firefighters tried to douse the inferno that sent a layer of deep gray smoke drifting across Consumer Square, the Westfield State men’s basketball team watched in shock as the fire ripped through the hotel they were staying in while in town for the Cardinal Classic at Plattsburgh State.
“We were just hanging out when we heard a lady yell there was a fire,” one player said.
“We looked out and saw all the smoke and got out,” said one of his teammates. “All of our stuff — our jerseys, laptops and clothes — are still in there.”
The scene was chaotic for hours into the afternoon as more than a dozen fire trucks boxed around the hotel and volunteers tried to contain the blaze.
“We haven’t had a fire in a commercial building like this in a long time,” said Scott Ewing, a deputy fire coordinator for Clinton County.
District 3 firefighters made it to the blaze within minutes because they had just responded to a power outage that knocked out services to several businesses along Route 3.
State Police and area fire police tried to manage the steady flow of traffic, which at one point came to a lengthy standstill.
Route 3 remained closed from the Interstate 87 exchange to Sorrell Avenue and traffic was backed up for more than a mile on Rugar Street, where officials had the Consumer Square entrance blocked.
Traffic was backlogged on other streets, including Tom Miller Road, for most of the afternoon.
Drivers said it took more than an hour to inch through that area.
Within two hours of when the fire sparked, almost every fire department in the county was somehow involved with the efforts, whether they were at the fire or providing standby support. Ewing estimated that 80 percent of the county’s resources were somehow involved.
At least a dozen fire departments were at the blaze, including City of Plattsburgh and Keeseville crews who brought their aerial trucks to help attack the blaze from the roof, where flames leapt into the afternoon sky for more than three hours.
Hotel employees later rounded up the displaced occupants and helped get them to temporary refuge where they were being assisted by officials from the Red Cross.
Several ambulances were also in the area, though no serious injuries are believed to have been reported.
There were more than 100 guest rooms in the hotel, though it was unclear how many were occupied when the fire sparked.
— Contributing Writer Ryan Hutchins Contributed to this report.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
Photos
Aerial trucks from several departments attack the fire at the Comfort Inn in Plattsburgh.
Firefighters prepare to assault the fire in the Comfort Inn in plattsburgh.
Bystanders watch in awe as firefighters tackle the fire at the Comfort Inn in Plattsburgh.