No Injury in Hotel Fire

Fire broke out at Hótel Hella, South Iceland, around 11:30 last night. There were no injuries, and the hotel director was able to extinguish the fire before fire fighters arrived. The fire seems to have originated in a bathroom fan in one of the guest rooms. The hotel was evacuated right away.

Twenty fire fighters came to the scene. They had to tear down a bathroom wall to get access to sparks underneath. Fire Chief Leifur Bjarki Björnsson told mbl.is that while the fire was not substantial, the smoke was immense.

Luckily, the weather was good last night, about 15 degrees C (59 degrees F) and calm winds, so the guests were not cold. All 90 of them were transferred to nearby hotels within two hours of the fire having been reported.

The hotel has reopened and is booked up through October. Four rooms remain temporarily closed. Arnar Freyr Ólafsson reports that evacuation plans worked perfectly, and no panic resulted from the fire.