Ft. Lauderdale Beach Hotel Evacuated Due To Fire

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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - The Conrad Ft. Lauderdale Beach hotel was temporarily evacuated Friday morning.

Ft. Lauderdale Fire said a fire broke out in the parking garage for the hotel at 551 North Ft. Lauderdale Beach Boulevard.

Alarms sounded throughout the building with a message for hundreds of guests to leave.

"There was an alarm and through the speakers we heard that we had to leave the premises, so we just went down the stairs," said Claudia Valdez. "We were smelling smoke when we were on the staircase so it was a little scary."

Arriving firefighters found that a car had caught fire on the fifth floor of the garage. By the time they got there, the sprinkler system had already put out the fire.

Ft. Lauderdale Fire Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan said the guests were never in danger and were asked to leave as a precaution.

"There was heavy smoke on the 4th, 5th, and 6th (floors of the garage) but not in any of the occupated or occupied areas of the building," he said. "This isn't your basic car fire because it's located inside of a commercial structure that's occupied by hundreds of people, it is an enclosed parking garage and the cars are on lifts inside the parking garage."

"It was very scary because we didn't know if it was still in the building but the staff was amazing and they were like checking people off the list to make sure everyone was out here," said Nicole Erdfrocht.

As firefighters cleared the smoke guests were allowed to return to their rooms. The hotel was back up to full operation within hours.