Smoke forces guests at hotel to evacuate
05.10.2006, 09:48
Newlyweds Sarah Linn and Raymond Gallardo smiled as their wedding photographer snapped their pictures — with several emergency vehicles as a backdrop.
Hotels in Lisbon
The couple's 5 p.m. wedding reception in a downtown hotel was put on hold when smoke circulating on the penthouse floor displaced occupants and staff for more than an hour Sunday evening, Fire Department officials said.
Firefighters responded to an alarm at 5:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn at 217 N. St. Mary's St. to find light smoke on the 23rd floor, said district fire chief Tom McNulty.
An elevator motor caused the haze, McNulty said.
No flames were detected, and there was no report of damage at the scene.
Occupants and staff lined the sidewalks of St. Mary's Catholic Church and the Charline McCombs Empire Theater waiting for word when they could go back inside.
Some people slumped as they waited. That wasn't the case for the Gallardos.
"Everything that's important is out here," Sarah Linn Gallardo said.
"Us, the rings, our family and the marriage license."