Published: July 16, 2008 11:21 am         

Dryer fire forces evacuation of Frostburg Hampton Inn

FROSTBURG - Check-in time at the Hampton Inn on Wednesday was scheduled for its normal time, following an overnight accidental fire that forced evacuation of the 72-room hotel.

"We plan to open by noon and our normal check-in is 2 p.m., so we will be back to normal operation," said Hampton Inn general manager Parika Andreassen, who unexpectedly spent the night at the hotel following the 12:19 a.m. incident.

The fire in a commercial dryer filled the three-story building at 11200 New Georges Creek Road with smoke, forcing its guests outdoors before firefighters arrived. There were no injuries and, at the time of the incident, there were only two vacancies there.

Frostburg Volunteer Fire Chief Eric Yates said the fire was confined to the dryer and was mostly extinguished by the hotel's sprinkler system prior to the arrival of about two dozen volunteer firefighters.

The volunteers extinguished the fire, ventilated the building and mopped up water in the laundry room.

"The cause was obviously accidental and due to overheated materials that were left in the dryer too long," said Yates, who was in charge of the fire operation.

Andreassen said hotel staff called hotels throughout the area to accommodate its guests. The patrons were not allowed to re-enter until the fire alarm system was reset along with the sprinkler system Wednesday morning.

"Most of the hotels were full and some of our guests decided just to drive on home, those that live only a couple of hours away," she said.

"But we got all of them placed. Some went to Days Inn, Super 8, Comfort Inn, but most went to Rocky Gap. We took care of all of their accommodations and printed out directions to give them before they left.

"It was pretty much a full house last night, summertime with a lot of business and leisure travel." said Andreassen.

The Hampton Inn general manager also commended the firefighters.

"Frostburg Fire Department did a wonderful job. It went very smoothly," she said.

Damage was confined to the dryer and no estimate of the damage was available.

Shaft, Clarysville and LaVale volunteer fire companies also responded following alert by the Allegany County 911 Joint Communications Division. Units were on the scene for just over an hour.

Contact Jeffrey Alderton at jlalderton@times-news.com.