The Baranof Hotel was evacuated briefly Sunday night after a bucket of oily rags in the basement caught fire setting off fire alarms, according to hotel management.
“It sounded scary, but it was just some oily rags that caught fire in the basement,” said Steve Hamilton, Baranof general manager. “We just threw them out, and that’s all it was.”
Capital City Fire/Rescue arrived at the Baranof at about 8:30 p.m. and found a five-gallon bucket full of burning towels “that had an oily substance on them,” according to a daily incident report from CCFR. Firefighters extinguished the fire, but they were unable to identify what caused the fire. “Spontaneous combustion may have been the cause,” the report states.
The fire didn’t harm anybody or cause any damage to the hotel.
“There was no damage whatsoever — except to the rags,” Hamilton said. “Nothing else was burnt; life went on.”
