Chattanooga firefighters quickly mitigated a dangerous situation at a Southside hotel Wednesday night, including rescuing some guests trapped in a smoke-filled elevator.
At 7:41 p.m., Blue Shift companies responded to 100 West 21st Street on a commercial fire. There was a fire in the basement of the hotel with people trapped inside the elevator above the fire.
The people inside the elevator reported to 911 that the elevator was quickly filling with smoke. Firefighters arrived on scene, pried the elevator doors open with Hurst tools and pulled two trapped people up and out of the elevator. They were evaluated by Hamilton County EMS for smoke inhalation, but they were not transported to the hospital.
Meanwhile, CFD personnel were still hard at work inside the hotel. They had the two-alarm fire out in the basement by 7:54 p.m. and crews were also going floor to floor evacuating other guests from the smoke-filled structure.
Crews remained on scene for some time removing smoke from the building. There were no injuries. CFD gave thanks to mutual aid partners for filling in at city fire stations while the CFD worked this incident.
Officials on the scene say the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction.
photo by CFD