Two mayors and other guests said alarms did not sound during a fire Tuesday at the Capital Hilton in downtown Washington, and that many patrons were alerted by the smell of smoke billowing through the upper floors, reports The Washington Post.
Mayor Hillary Schieve of Reno, Nev., and Mayor James Brainard of Carmel, Ind., who were attending the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors at the hotel, said they smelled something burning, saw fire engines, heard commotion and then opened the doors to their rooms to thick smoke in the hallways.
Lisa Cole, a spokeswoman for the Hilton hotel chain, said in a statement that “all guests were successfully evacuated” and that the cause of the fire is being investigated. She said she was checking on reports that there were problems with the alarm system.
Brainard said the alarms — “even the one I pulled” — didn’t work. He said he walked down from the 10th floor to a garbage room, which led him out to an alley. Schieve said she made it down seven flights of stairs only to reach an exit that she said did not open. She found her way out through the kitchen.
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