A sudden fire has substantially destroyed two meeting halls of Hotel Sheraton, Udaipur today morning.  No casualties were reported in the incident though.  Hundreds of startled guests were seen evacuating their rooms as the atmosphere turned chaotic.

It took 2 hours of fire-fighting by a fleet of Eight Fire Brigade vehicles that responded at the site, to control the flames.

The cause of fire is said to be a short circuit but the investigations are still on.  According to hotel management, the staff had let go off the alarm after the fire and all the guests were successfully rescued.

However, some guests who were eye witnesses to the incident said that they were not informed about the mishap by the hotel staff.  At the time of the incident, most of the guests were sleeping in their rooms and woke up only after hearing disturbing sounds coming from outside.

There are 240 rooms in the luxurious hotel and around 108 rooms were occupied with more than 250 guests today, which included many foreigners.

Rishi Johri, Front Office Manager informed that, “there are two meeting halls situated in the basement of the Hotel.  The fire started in one of the halls and gradually spread to the other hall.  Thick smoke from the fire soon spread to other areas of the Hotel.

“Our automatic fire equipment started working immediately and our staff also responded quickly by raising the alarm and started rescuing guests”, says Johri.

The Hotel was evacuated and everyone including staff and guests gathered at the garden area.  Soon, vehicles of the fire brigade arrived on the spot along with the Police.

ADM City, Mohammad Yasin Pathan; UMC official, Babulal; C.I Ambamata, Shivlal and other senior officials also reached the site to assess the situation.