DENVER—At least 11 people have been taken to area hospitals after an early-morning fire at a Denver hotel Thursday.
The fire broke out about 1 a.m. at a Howard Johnson Inn. Authorities say the fire broke out in a stairwell and quickly filled nearby rooms and hallways with thick black smoke.
All of hotel’s the rooms had to be evacuated, sending 32 people outside.
Hotel guest Spencer Rowell says he awoke to the smell of smoke in his room, and found the hallway filled with smoke when he opened the door.
He says he and many other guests went to their second-floor balconies to escape the smoke, but that a couple of guests dropped babies to people already on the ground.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze in about an hour.
The cause is unknown.
