Firefighters move in and out of the basement of the Crown Regency where a fire broke out yesterday. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
THICK smoke caused by a small fire at the basement forced out guests and employees of the Crown Regency Hotel and Towers along Osmeña Boulevard at 12:30 p.m. yesterday.
Wheelchair-bound elderly guests were helped outside by their families and employees, most of whom got out of the hotel’s 20th floor.
Parents who had bought food at the lower level rushed upstairs to fetch their children. Traffic enforcers had to close the entire right lane of Osmeña Boulevard for an hour until the fire was put out.
No one was injured. Cebu City Fire Marshal Rogelio Bongabong said a sofa near a generator set caught fire.
Yesterday’s fire was the fourth in Cebu City amid the nationwide observance of Fire Prevention Month.
Bongabong estimated the damage in yesterday’s fire at P10,000.
He said the thick smoke initially barred firefighters from entering the basement.