Four-Alarm Fire Strikes Route 40 Hotel

At least two people have been transported to local hospitals for smoke inhalation following a four-alarm fire that struck the hotel on the 5700 block of Baltimore National Pike Saturday evening.

According to Baltimore County Fire Department spokesperson Jay Ringgold, the fire was initially reported at 8:14 p.m.

Guests who had been staying at the hotel say that fire alarms had gone off earlier in the evening. Many did not know there was an emergency until they encountered heavy smoke filling the hallways.

"We heard the fire alarm go off, then stop, and go off again," said Omar Oliver of Landover, who is visiting Baltimore with Theresa Tolson and checked into a third-floor room.

"We called downstairs and they said it was nothing, just somebody playing with the fire alarm," Oliver said. "Then the TV went out and we started to smell smoke."

At least one guest at the hotel was evacuated from an upper floor by a rescue down a fire department ladder.

Ringgold said that two hotel guests were transported to a local hospital for smoke inhalation, and one firefighter was being treated for an unspecified injury.

"Some people coming down the stairs from the upper floors had trouble breathing from all the smoke," Oliver said.

Ed Edwards, who lives nearby, was at the Walgreen's across the street when the fire started. When he walked outside, he saw the heavy smoke coming from the roof of the building. By that time multiple crews were on the scene.

"It wasn't until they busted out the windows that the smoke turned black," he said.

Crews had multiple ladders up to the front and the back of the hotel and windows were broken on both sides.

Sherry Forster was in town from Philadelphia to see her son play lacrosse at UMBC Saturday evening.

"I was on my way out when the TV cut out," Forster said. "Then I noticed that the elevator wasn't working. When I came out to the lobby, there was a lot of smoke."

"The fire alarms went off, then it stopped," said Foluke Onajide of New Jersey, one of dozens of family and friends from the U.S. and Africa who gathered at the Days Inn to celebrate Akingbolahan Afolabi's 50th birthday party.

"About an hour later, that's when we saw the smoke," Onajide said. "When I came out, I couldn't see, there was so much smoke. I couldn't even breathe."

The party guests and hotel residents gathered on the sidewalk by Baltimore National Pike and watched pillars of smoke rise from the top of Days Inn, uncertain what to do next.

"The birthday cake, our food, all of our liquor--it's all inside," Onajube said. "This is a birthday we'll remember."

The cause and extent of the fire are unknown, Ringgold said.