Fire Sends Hotel Guests Scurrying

June 3, 2006

SPRINGDALE -- Guests at a Springdale hotel had to leave after a fire broke out Saturday evening.

The fire started in a room in the back of the Howard Johnson's motel on Glenspring Road just after 7:30 p.m. Fire crews were quickly able to bring the fire under control.

There was no immediate word of injuries, but paramedics were seen taking a stretcher back to the scene of the fire.It's not known how much damage was caused or if guests will be allowed to remain at the hotel overnight.

Top hotel badly damaged in fire

9 May 2006

More than 60 firefighters have tackled a fire at one of Berkshire's most prestigious hotels.
Fire crews were called to the Swan hotel at Streatley, which is on the banks of the River Thames, near Goring, on Monday evening.

It is believed the fire started in the hotel's store room in the newly refurbished spa. About 30% of the roof of the building was destroyed.

One firefighter was injured putting out the flames at the 45-bedroom hotel.

Kitchen fire damages Tijuana's landmark Restaurant Caesar

May 31, 2006

TIJUANA – One of the city's oldest landmarks was damaged yesterday when flames broke out in the restaurant that gave worldwide fame to the Caesar salad.

The incident sent smoke above the Avenida Revolución tourist district, but no injuries were reported. The damage appeared to be contained to Bar Restaurant Caesar, near Fifth Avenue and next door to Hotel Caesar
Flames spread after a pan with hot oil caught fire in the kitchen, said Jorge Chávez Vargas, head waiter at the 76-year-old restaurant.
Caesar Cardini, who is said to have first sold the salad in the 1920s at his cafe down the street, opened the existing hotel and restaurant in 1930.

Though several versions of the Caesar salad creation story exist, it generally is believed the salad was made by Livio Santini, an Italian immigrant who was a cook in the original Caesar Cardini restaurant, and that Santini's boss was the first to market it, about 1925.

One story has it that the restaurant was running low on supplies and Cardini needed something whipped up with what he had on hand. He made the salad appear to be a specialty of the house by having it prepared at the table.

Four customers were at the restaurant yesterday when the fire broke out, Chávez said, two in the bar area and two in the patio outside by the sidewalk.

Firefighters received the call at 2:02 p.m., said Capt. Roberto Díaz of the Tijuana Fire Department, and left the restaurant two hours later. He said investigators were looking into the fire's cause.

The kitchen is in the back of the restaurant, which is operated separately from the hotel. While the flames were contained to the restaurant, the smoke passed through vents into the hotel and into the upstairs rooms, said Zita Ochoa, a receptionist at the hotel.

Guests and employees were evacuated. Late yesterday afternoon, employees were mopping out ashes from the restaurant and hotel, and the smell of smoke hung in the air.

Chávez, the head waiter, said he was hopeful that the front bar section could be reopened today, if fire officials give permission.

Fire strikes famous Borders hotel

l 8June 2006

blaze has damaged one of the most famous inns in southern Scotland.
Fire crews were called to the blaze at The Border Hotel, Kirk Yetholm, Roxburghshire, at about 1130 BST.

The fire wrecked a family living area and kitchen at the hotel. The famous thatched roof of the 250-year-old building was also destroyed.

Roads surrounding the inn, which marks the northern end of the Pennine Way hiking route, were closed as 30 firefighters fought the blaze.

Investigators believe the fire may have been sparked by work being carried out on the thatched roof.

The hotel has been a part of Borders history since the 18th Century.

Following the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745 and the imposition of taxes on alcohol, many people became involved in smuggling whisky out of Scotland.

Illegally imported wines and spirits were also landed on the Northumberland coast, then brought across the border to Kirk Yetholm.

Assistance offered

"One can only imagine that the Border Hotel would have played its part in this trade at that time since more than 20% of the population were involved in this activity," said a local Visitscotland spokesperson.

The tourist body has taken steps to contact customers and offer alternative accommodation.

It also said it would be offering any assistance it could to the hotel owners.

Owner Philip Blackburn said he hoped business would resume as soon as possible.

"It is just a disaster really for me, especially at this time of year," he said.

Firefighters said a fire door prevented the flames from spreading.

"Right now, the building is unstable," Rouses Point Police Chief Robert Craig said over the rumble of idling fire trucks as he surveyed the activity around the old hotel at the corner of Lake and Montgomery streets.

Continuous truck traffic wouldn't necessarily bring the building down, the chief said, but it might dislodge bricks or other debris.

"We're trying to keep it as safe as we can."

EARLY A.M. FIRE
Fire was spotted at the Rouses Point landmark, which had been unoccupied for some time, at about 2 a.m. Flames showed at just one location upon the arrival of Rouses Point Fire Department shortly afterward, said First Assistant Chief Walter Laramie.

"How involved was it inside?" he said. "It was hard to tell."

Nine fire departments joined Rouses Point in the battle, fighting the fire strictly from the outside, said Laramie, with three ladder trucks and the deck guns on both the village's pumper trucks.

"We had a number of ground, large-volume fire streams and probably a dozen hand lines. We started to use foam, but it got beyond our capacity."

At about 9:30 a.m., smoke seeped from rubble that seemed to fill much of the second floor of the structure. Tin roofing sheets hung over the sides, and, still visible on the building, was a painted advertisement promising "clean comfortable rooms" and "good food."

UNOCCUPIED
A fire investigator with a camera hanging around his neck ascended the village truck's ladder to take photographs.

"To the best of our knowledge, no one was staying there," Laramie said, shaking his head over the massive mess. "If there were, they would be vagrants."

It would have been too dangerous to allow firefighters inside the structure, he said.

"With the amount of fire and smoke showing, visibility was a real issue," he said.

So, Laramie said, was the building's one staircase.

"If you went upstairs and got trapped, you would have had to look for a window. That would have been a real trick."

Neighboring structures were also at risk.

"There were sparks flying ... probably as far as the barber shop," he said, indicating that building a few hundred feet to the north.

FLED FIRE
Paul and Sue Duffy, who live at 79 Lake St., two doors down from the Holland, evacuated with their children, Nicholas, 6, and Karen, 8, after someone pounded on their door at about 2 a.m.

"We got the kids out real quick," said Paul.

The Fire Department hadn't arrived yet, he said, and flames were shooting out of the old hotel's roof.

He and his wife returned to gather up their numerous photo albums and music CDs, along with a few important teddy bears, just as a precaution.

"It was going pretty good," he said of the fire.

Other residents were asked to evacuate, too, and, Tuesday morning, those whose homes are immediately adjacent to the building were told they shouldn't expect to sleep at home that night.

The Holland is owned by Gary Clarke, who for a time operated WBBI-Pax 27 television there. Laramie was told that, most recently, it served as a relay station, housing equipment for that purpose.

He said no cause for the blaze had been pinpointed, and fire investigators were in the midst of studying what evidence could be found.

DIAMONDS, WEDDINGS
Bystanders observed the fire, and many recalled the hotel's long history.

"My father had a taxi cab stand there," said Chudleigh Fosher of Coopersville, thinking back to the 1930s. "It was a very, very, very kept-up building.

"It was one of the nicest buildings in Rouses Point."

Adrian Fitts remembered the dramatic arrest, in 1951, of a jewel thief at the Holland; the woman had hidden $200,000 worth of uncut diamonds in a toilet bowl.

"A plumber found them," laughed Fosher. "Then there was a big argument — who owned the diamonds?"

Arsene Letourneau studied the wrecked structure with sadness, recalling his own family's long ownership of the place, from May 1943, when his grandparents Bertha and Arsene Letourneau bought the place until its sale in 1993.

His grandfather died in September 1943, the younger Arsene said, telling how his father, the late Richard Letourneau, was just 9 years old at the time but became his mother's right hand running the 33-room hotel.

"My grandmother lived there," said Arsene, who is village treasurer and over the years assisted with about every chore, from bartending to waiting tables.

The Holland catered to railroad workers, keeping a running tab for the regulars, Arsene said.

"I don't know how many people told me they had wedding receptions there."

PAST FIRES
Fire had destroyed the first Hotel Holland on the site sometime after the turn of the century. Rebuilt larger and with the signature tower as fourth floor, it looked much as it did before Tuesday's fire.

Another blaze swept through the attics later on, but repairs were made.

Claire Fosher, Chudleigh's wife, felt badly that fire caused the final demise of the building.

"It was really a landmark," she said.

Tuesday afternoon, the old hotel's demolition began