
A serious fire in the parking garage of the Armon Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut on Thursday that damaged over a dozen vehicles led to the evacuation of more than 1,000 guests who were attending the “Chop A Nosh” Passover program, according to Yeshiva World News.
Stamford Fire Chief Trevor Roach said that officials were worried that the Armon Hotel and Conference garage might collapse. However, the structure remained intact.
The fire began on the lower level of the garage on Thursday morning. The blaze spread to multiple cars, eventually completely destroying eight cars, News12 Connecticut reported.
There were no reported injuries. Guests from the hotel that were evacuated early in the morning were able to go back inside later in the day as hotel operations resumed as normal.
Fire officials remain worried about the possibility that the second floor of the garage could collapse due to the extreme temperature of the fire weakening of steel beams, according to local media reports.
City engineering officials are working to reinforce the structure so that fire marshals can safety enter to investigate the cause of the fire.
Most of the approximately 1,000 guests staying at the hotel were there for Passover break. They were awakened early Thursday when the fire began spreading through the parking garage.
"It was a terrible morning. We woke up at 5 with the fire alarm going off. Everyone had to exit the building. It was just hard. We all wanted to go back to sleep," hotel guest Cheryl Sawyers told CBS News.
According to fire officials, eight vehicles were destroyed and either others had major damage.
"The amount of heat that was generated – it's an open bar joist-style construction above us – and there was not a sprinkler system inside the parking garage, so we had [a] significant amount of damage to the supporting structures, which has caused the potential for collapse and we have some significant sagging of the second floor directly above," Stamford Fire Department Deputy Chief Matt Palmer told reporters.
According to Yeshiva World News, a guest explained: “Attendees were evacuated to the front lobby outdoors, including elderly and newborns. Everyone was well behaved, and [praying] started outdoors at 8:00 a.m. when the building was deemed safe. By 10:30 a.m., guests were allowed back to their rooms."