[touma_karamochi]

Well that was interesting, a couple hrs ago we were evacuated from the ES because of a smoky-type fire coming from the road-side part of the hotel. We were all kept outside for almost an hr, and I was out in my bare feet because I couldn't find my shoes when the auto-voice started with evacuation orders.

Anyone else a part of that or the chaos outside the rooms once we got back in? The 'Marco' 'Polo' bit was interesting, but I couldn't make out what the other shouting was about...

[rrtycoon2]

I was on my way back to the parking garage by the Embassy Suites when I heard about the fire. The way people were talking, I was expecting to see half the building ablaze; however, I'm glad to hear it wasn't a major fire (despite the massive police and fire department presence outside) and that you were all able to get back in relatively quickly.
I did notice a small group of hecklers on the top level of the garage shouting down to the group standing near the east exit of the hotel, but nothing else that would be interesting (although there was a police van that was labeled "Portage Brigade 13" on it...so I thought that was a little ironic.


Did anyone find out the cause of the fire in the first place, and are the panels scheduled for tomorrow cancelled or being moved?

This post has been edited by rrtycoon2: 16 May 2010 - 04:59 PM

[frzndaqiri]

Official word on the event: an overloaded circuit caused the generator to turn on. That had a bad piston ring, allowing exhaust to back into the hotel, setting off the fire alarm. Hence the diesel smell, rather than usual smoke smell.

I do not believe any scheduling is affected.

[nouseforaname]

Yeah I saw this happen. I heard it was a heater or generator. It managed to make a bunch of smoke. I actually saw people crying though I don't know if anyone was hurt.

[ozone_00]

I was at a panel when it happened. The lights dimmed for a moment, and people started to smell smoke. We saw smoke coming from a light fixture so we all exited and panel host pulled the fire alarm on the way out.

[frzndaqiri]

The lights dimming was the circuit tripping over. No one hurt, just stressed/worried.

On an amusing note: On request, I made "I survived" buttons if anyone would like to come to AA for one.

[h0pelesscause]

it was insane i was leaving the building to have smoke. no shoes cause i thought i would go right back in and after i got outside a whole of people followed i was confused for a while.

[Makki12]

frzndaqiri, on May 16 2010, 09:01 AM, said:

The lights dimming was the circuit tripping over. No one hurt, just stressed/worried.

On an amusing note: On request, I made "I survived" buttons if anyone would like to come to AA for one.

I got that button! it was awesome!

[excel excel]

Makki12, on May 16 2010, 05:06 PM, said:

I got that button! it was awesome!

Lol I should have got one myself. My sister was staying at the embassy. That hotel was having problems to begin with in the first place. The day after the storm, the lightning affected the electronic key cards so no one had a room for hours. And if you wanted a room you had to wait for the manager to escort you. And the day the firs started. We had just come back from the movies when the hotel told us not to come in. We smelled smoke right away. At first we thought it was a prank with the fire alarm. But when I looked up and saw a huge puff of smoke, thats when I knew it was serious. I took pics of what happened. Thankfully by the time we came back from the movies there were no fire trucks and everything seemed back to normal.

[TaiyakiOni]

I'm just happy the fire wasn't caused by someone and that it was just a electrical accident.

[Femme Fatale]

I'm glad that I was able to go back to my room at the Embassy. This is something that the trusty staff of the hotel need to work on before it gets really serious. I'll be more than happy to return there next year.

[excel excel]

Here are some pics I took of what happened when I was off duty.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5952...mp;id=502485218

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5952...mp;id=502485218

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5952...mp;id=502485218

[rrtycoon2]

A shame you didn't get a picture of the line of fire trucks and cop cars lining the road leading to the parking garage. If anything, that told the story of how serious this "fire" scare got.



A quick note based upon some replies to this post: the only reason the word "fire" was put in quotes was because, at that time, I thought it was settled that there was no actual fire (instead, it was a malfunctioning generator spewing smoke). At no time did I intend for that to be taken as a sarcastic response, and I apologize if it seemed that way.

This post has been edited by rrtycoon2: 17 May 2010 - 09:05 PM

[excel excel]

rrtycoon2, on May 16 2010, 06:04 PM, said:

A shame you didn't get a picture of the line of fire trucks and cop cars lining the road leading to the parking garage. If anything, that told the story of how serious this "fire" scare got.

Yeah. The pics I took was when I was in front of the Gibson's Steakouse. There were still some people still in the building partiying and dancing in front of the window like it was no big deal. Fire saftey is not a joke. But I am glad that everyone is ok.

[Doggeh]

Yeah, good to know everyone is ok. Was the fire in an actual room? What was the damage?

I was out at a panel when I heard the news that my hotel was on fire. I was a bit freaked out needless to say. Towering Inferno kinda scarred me for life when I was young >.<

The uh...after party was kinda fun. I loved cheering with everyone on the balcony.

[mmy-sama]

The roof.
The roof.
The roof is on fire.
We don't need no water let the motherscrewers burn.
Burn motherscrewers.
Burn.

[Malarky]

saw the aftermath as we were leaving the DT. My hat's off to the group dancing in the median. LOL, What were they singing anyway?

[NoodlePop]

I had a panel in the Embassy (Deculture! A Macross Panel) which had me and a co-panelist dressed up as Minmay and Ranka respectively. We were both wearing heels, and I was wearing a super short strapless white dress. The evacuation happened right when our panel ended when we were about to go back upstairs to change (we were staying in the hotel too). Not a pleasant outfit to be stuck outside in. I was also carrying two laptops and a bunch of Macross paraphernalia that I was using at the panel...even worse.

Actually, at first my panelists and I were freaking out because we thought we set the projector on fire after our panel, because the smoke was coming from the direction of the panel room. Then we joked that the Embassy couldn't handle Nekki Basara.

[Rebel]

rrtycoon2, on May 16 2010, 06:04 PM, said:

A shame you didn't get a picture of the line of fire trucks and cop cars lining the road leading to the parking garage. If anything, that told the story of how serious this "fire" scare got.

Well the Embassy Suites is considered a target hazard. Which means it's a building with a high potential of loss of life or property in the case of a serious fire. It's better to have multiple trucks show up at once, than one truck arrive and then decide to call in more trucks which wastes even more time. I believe there was 4 towns that responded from what I saw.

[TekoMuto]

I accidentally an air strike

[redx1]

rrtycoon2, on May 16 2010, 06:04 PM, said:

A shame you didn't get a picture of the line of fire trucks and cop cars lining the road leading to the parking garage. If anything, that told the story of how serious this "fire" scare got.

Well a piston ring that is THAT shot could have easily caused a real fire. I hope the embassy learned that they need to regularly test and maintain their generators for fire code compliance. A bad piston ring isn't something that happens overnight. Luckily no one was hurt including building staff that might have been near the generator when it fired up.

[Mizu_Haku]

Quote

The roof.
The roof.
The roof is one fire.
We don't need no water let the motherscrewers burn.
Burn motherscrewers.
Burn.

^EPIC WIN^

I met someone dressed as Ellis from Left 4 Dead 2 who was carrying a "gas can" as a prop who had just been in the Embassy when the whole fire thing happened.

It was priceless.

She was like "I swear, I had nothing to do with it... even if the first level of the game I'm in takes place in a burning hotel and I'm carrying what seems to be a gas can and am the most likely suspect.... It wasn't me. There's only kitty litter in here!"

xD

Good times...

This post has been edited by Mizu_Haku: 17 May 2010 - 09:31 AM

[excel excel]

It would appear that the Embassy has a horrible maintenance record. The key cards didnt work on thursday due to the storm and then the fire on saturday. Not a great record to have. I didnt stay at the Embassy, but my sister did. I was there when all that stuff went down.

[Mizu_Haku]

As far as hotels that aren't connected to the con...

InterContinental ftw. The room was relatively large. We had a good-sized flat-screen TV, nicely decorated, the bathroom was large, and the shower was AWESOME. I love those overhead showers.... Feels like you're taking a shower in the rain!

And the hotel had a really nice art collection. Nice. Very new and modern-looking. It was really nice.

Only downside was that it was a bit of a walk.

[animefan1977]

We came down the stairwell on the southwest side of the building, and as we got to the bottom we encountered a lot of smoke. It was sort of scary. Then we had to squeeze past all the firefighters. What I did not appreciate was the staffer screaming at us after we evacuated. Okay, I know you have to control the crowd but she was overdoing it. Telling a huge group of people to "smoosh" up onto a sidewalk, already teeming with people is not a good idea.

Glad to know that it was a hotel issue and not a fire that started in a room. I was worried that someone started a fire in their rooms, or something.

[chainedbyroses]

I kinda figured they were a tad behind on maintenance when the Embassy's elevators started opening and popping in between floors, missing floors by a half-level only to suddenly lurch into proper position, and barely creeping up floors at all if there were more than 4 people in it at any given time..... They kinda made the Hyatt's packed "jumper party" elevators seem divine in comparison. Our rooms bathroom fan didn't work (shower fooooog!), and the toilet was backing up as well (ew). That being said, an unmaintained generator really doesn't come as much a surprise to me. :/

What scared me, however, was that you couldn't hear the fire alarm warning in the rooms. I only knew there was something going on because of the people screaming out panic screams in the halls, not their usual "haha i'm being a dumbass running and screaming in the halls" kind of screams. Thought at first maybe someone drunk fell off the balcony, so I muted my Mac and went to open the door and find out. Only then could you even /hear/ the alarm -- and smell the funky smoke odor (almost like gas?). That's when I knew it wasn't just someone being an butt pulling the alarm like in the Hyatt a few years back, and high-tailed my rear down 6 flights of stairs (was there some sort of staircase party btw? A /lot/ of empty/half empty beer bottles between floors 5 and 3). It's a good thing I'd decided to rip the Aural Vampire cd to my Mac before showering... otherwise I'd have been inside in the shower then napping like planned for that entire time, nonethewiser that there was even anything going on let alone an electrical fire. They /MIGHT/ wanna consider looking into that alarm system in the future... o.o;;

Though, to look on the bright side of things, the "Great Con Fire of 2010" did finally get my butt in gear to help volunteer for the time... been meaning to do that for the last couple cons now. :3

[MomoKurumi]

My friend and I had just gotten back to the room and were about to heat up some leftovers when we heard the announcement. Does anyone know if there was any actual alarm? I mean, if you had missed that brief announcement for whatever reason, it would have been easy to have not known anything was going on. In fact, I heard after it was evacuated, there were some people still in their rooms about 6 floors up just looking down and taking pictures!

I took lots of pics and some video down on the ground. I'm gonna try and upload it, since it's humorous now, knowing everyone is okay and it wasn't too serious. I think it was handled very well at the time. People stayed relatively calm, and the staff and traffic guards did an excellent job of managing the crowds. Funny, when I knew it was serious and we had to leave, I didn't know what to grab, but, instinctively I grabbed my black lace parasol. I figured I'd have to salvage something! XD

Our hotel room was kind of crummy; one of the lamps was really anal, our fridge didn't work despite being new (literally, it still had the plastic on the back and the coils- that's why it didn't work), and it smelled of smoke despite being non-smoking (perhaps it was previously smoking?). So, the fire doesn't surprise me either, but all in all, it's a good story to tell. None of it bothered me since the convention was SO AWESOME! What I heard was that the fire started in someone's room, that it was electrical, and that it could have been easily handled but someone pulled the alarm anyways. I heard that from the concierge, but there's no knowing how much intel they had gotten at that point. Besides, they may have told a slightly different story to save face, haha.

And, NoodlePop, my friend and I had just left your panel after you talked about Macross Frontier to go back to our room before the evacuation. =P


EDIT: Join. Because we survived. =P We Survived the Embassy Suites Fire at ACen 2010! (Facebook Group)

This post has been edited by MomoKurumi: 17 May 2010 - 06:11 PM

[mole_force]

My friends and I were celebrating my birthday down on the 2nd floor in the Embassy in our hotel room. We were waiting for other friends to gather in our room, when there was two faint knocks on the door. I don't think anyone notice it but me, so I checked and what you know, smoke was bellowing around the center court and fire alarms were going off. I told everyone from my room to GTFO right away and we crossed the street to the DoubleTree Circular Entrance. BTW, there was a nice Lamborghini Murcielago parked near the restaurant/bar. Notice the fire on the 8th/7th Floor near the stairway close to the convention center. We have to wait in another friend's apartment for the mean time, luckily the Green Mile was on to watch. Afterwards, firetrucks went away, went back to our rooms and enjoyed the con. I still recall smelling the smoke even after couple of hours being back into the room.

frzndaqiri, on May 16 2010, 12:28 AM, said:

Official word on the event: an overloaded circuit caused the generator to turn on. That had a bad piston ring, allowing exhaust to back into the hotel, setting off the fire alarm. Hence the diesel smell, rather than usual smoke smell...

To be honest, I feel light headed and dizzy since Sunday morning. That diesel smell might be the cause of my sickness.

[Bettachi]

It was pretty insane.
A few friends and myself were staying at the Embassy, 8th floor. They were taking a walk outside and I was chilling inside the room when it all happened.
I was comfortable laying in bed looking at some of my new stuff while watching TV then the alarms startled the crap out of me. Luckily, I found that apparently I can respond pretty
quickly in that type of situation. I immediately hopped up in my PJ's and started ninjaing across the room grabbing all the important stuff, jumping over chairs, then made my way down
the stairs. Took a bit to find my friends, needless to say they were relieved to see nothing fatal happened.
I'm very glad it wasn't anything serious and nobody got hurt.

On a side note about the keycards, Sunday night (we were checking out Monday morning) a few of us went walking around the deserted Hyatt and Convention Center, and when we returned,
none of our keycards worked. The problem was remedied right at the desk downstairs, just curious as to how that happened.

[Stormy-chan]

I find it amusing that the fire alarms didn't work properly.... I work in an office for a fire protection company and we service several hotels in the area. For us Fire Alarm inspections are required by State Fire code on an Annual or SemiAnnual basis depending on locality. I think the Fire Marshall Office in Chicago should stop by and check there inspection and repair records. Sounds like they have several issues that need fixed ASAP before someone does get hurt.. sigh I like staying at the Embassy but this event makes me think i need to shop around next year for other hotels.