Fire damages local hotel
By JODY MURPHYMINERAL WELLS -Betsey Hallman and Sara Caltrider thought the ringing in their hotel room at the Microtel Inn was the alarm clock.
It turned out to be the fire alarm.
"We hit the clock and picked up the phone," Hallman said, sitting in her car at the hotel parking lot Friday morning, surrounded by dozens of firefighters.
The alarm went off around 8 a.m.
"I thought it was a fire drill," Hallman said. "I thought 'I'm gonna get my clothes on.'"
Caltrider said the front desk called to tell them about a fire in the building.
Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jay Parsons said firefighters and the Wood County Sheriff's Department, along with the night auditor, entered the building and did a room-by-room search of the hotel. The buildings had about 11 rooms occupied and several of the guests had already checked out by the time the blaze started.
Hallman, Caltrider and Hallman's granddaughter left the room and exited the building through the main entrance. The trio joined a handful of other guests in the parking lot as fire crews from all over the county converged on the hotel.
"We could see the fire and smoke and the water damage at the other end of the hotel," Hallman said.
Firefighters from Mineral Wells, Vienna, Pond Creek, Parkersburg, Eastwood, Lubeck, Blennerhassett and Williamstown were on-scene and had the fire out in about 30 minutes.
There were no injuries.
Gas and power company officials were also on-scene to shut down the utilities. Police cordoned off the area, limiting Old Nicolette Road, off W.Va. 14, to emergency vehicles only. Crews remained on-scene well into the afternoon.
Parsons said the fire, which started in the corner of the attic, was contained to the attic and damaged only two unoccupied rooms. However, half the hotel suffered smoke and water damage. Parsons credited the building's sprinkler system with keeping the blaze contained.
"There was more water damage than anything else," Parsons said. He was hesitant to place a dollar amount on the damage. One official pegged damages at $250,000.
A fire marshal was on-scene. The fire investigation team and code enforcement officers were also called in.
Officials ruled the fire accidental and think it was sparked by an electrical short in the attic.
Hotel officials do not know when the hotel will reopen, but expect it will be at least two months.
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FireFighterWV
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11-16-09 1:09 AM
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Jay Called for rehab, RIT team,and more man power when he first got on scene not knowing realy what he had, I agree he called for to many recources,Jay was command and we couldnt even get ahold of him when we was arriving on scene for placment.
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Liftingchic
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11-15-09 8:54 PM
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I think its sad that you guys can sit here and tell these people how to do their jobs, When they get out of bed at all hours to come to these type of calls, for nothing but to help YOU! . If you have time to tell them how to do their jobs or how they can do it better , maybe you should go volunteer your time at a local VFD.
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hooterb311
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11-15-09 8:30 PM
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lol who says i dont teach firefighters how to do there job? thats the nice thing about a blog.. you never know who your talking to. look if you can give me a practical reason of why it took so many departments to put out a fire that should have been a min.3 station response also with a ladder truck ill give jay that one.. that was needed.. but tell me why there was som many stations there? look i know all about tunnel vision "big structure, lots of smoke" that makes people a little jumpy.. and you can tell me other units where canceled because i know for a fact that it was atleast 30 to 50 minutes before anyone left.. could be closer to a hour.. look i never said the job wasnt done good all im saying is i would like to know why it took so much? i seen the building it was not that bad... and i would love to know why a hotel didnt have fire breaks in the attic??? look there no need to get all offended about what people say on here..
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FireFighterWV
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11-15-09 7:19 PM
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Hooterb if you know so much, Why dont you start showing up on some of these fires and show us how we should do are job, since you dont think we are doing it the right way..
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hooterb311
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11-15-09 6:25 PM
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mr firefighter would you like to meet and talk about it? i meen since you know everything there is to know about being a firefighter... i meen wow what a tough guy!! or should i say what a joke! look i know jay and i know alot more than what you would beleive so maybe its you that should shut your mouth...
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FireFighterWV
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11-15-09 4:24 PM
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First of all Hooterb the fire started in the attic, and no there was no fire breaks in the attic, and all the fire depts were called for manpower.Once Chief Parsons found out what he had he cleared most of the fire depts.And for the ones talking about water damage that was mostly done from the sprinklers. If you was on scene you would know this kind of stuff, and if you wasnt there keep your mouth shut because you have no ideal what happened....Job well done by all fire depts that was there..
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dottie_cornell
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11-15-09 2:40 PM
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I see that everyone who helped the fire depts are listed but two people who rushed in before the fire department was even on scene. Something should be said about Dan Lott and his co-worker Scott who ran through the motel before the fire fighters were there to warn people of the fire. They work close to the motel and saw the smoke and without thought of their own safety immediatley started going through the building warning people to leave.
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hooterb311
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11-15-09 1:18 PM
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you must be one of them "super firefighters" huh aaronl? look im not the only one that thanks it was over kill for a 2 room and content fire with extinsion into the attic.. oh wait i dont know what im talking about??? give me a break! the place had a sprinkler system and i would think the attic had fire breaks in it also.. thats why it was over kill with the responding stations.. if it was for manpower i could understand. but that didnt seems to be the case... so maybe you should ask yourself if the chapter under logistics and fire ground operations did any good for you? but wait i have no idea what im talking about huh??? haha give me a break!
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AaronL
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11-15-09 10:48 AM
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Sorry for the double post, something went haywire on the box.
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AaronL
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11-15-09 10:44 AM
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Wildbill, there are quite a few reasons for the water damage, and getting into all of them here is impossible, but the main one is the automatic sprinkler system doing it's job. Every department from 50 miles were NOT called in, just the ones with mutual aid agreements and on call tower truck for protecting exposures: the surrounding structures. And to hooterb311, section 1 would teach you alot also.
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AaronL
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11-15-09 10:43 AM
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Wildbill, there are quite a few reasons for the water damage, and getting into all of them here is impossible, but the main one is the automatic sprinkler system doing it's job. Every department from 50 miles were NOT called in, just the ones with mutual aid agreements and on call tower truck for protecting exposures: the surrounding structures. And to hooterb311, section 1 would teach you alot also.
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hooterb311
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11-15-09 8:54 AM
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better watch out wildbill... people read that comment and they will get all upset about it and start crying lol but what you said is true..
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wildbill
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11-14-09 7:33 PM
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There usually is more water damage than anything else. Fire departments tend to go a little overboard on the water usage, all in the name of "safety" of course. And with seemingly every fire department within 50 square miles being called out(not sure why) I imagine there was some serious over-kill on this one, I'm surprised the building didn't float off it's foundation.
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