Dryer Fire at Hotel Forces Evacuation

Nearly 50 guests, along with 15 employees, were evacuated from the Hyatt Regency Irvine after a fire broke out in a large dryer in the laundry room on the second floor.

Eight fire engines and two hook-and-ladder trucks were sent to the hotel, said Capt. Dan Young of the Orange County Fire Department. The first truck arrived three minutes after the first alarm was sounded, he said.

Young said that towels in a car-size dryer on the second floor caught fire and the smoke triggered an alarm. Damage, estimated at $5,500, was confined to the dryer machine and the towels. He said the hotel has four large commercial dryers in the laundry room. The blaze was extinguished in 18 minutes, Young said.

Guests were evacuated from the second and third floors of the 14-floor hotel next to the San Diego Freeway. No one was injured and guests were returned to their rooms within two hours.

Young said the fire triggered a water sprinkler in the laundry room, which confined the fire to the dryer. But he said the towels produced heavy smoke that flowed through parts of the building.

No one from the hotel was available for comment.