Clinton Evacuated After Fire Alarm Rings
President Clinton was hustled out of a hotel ballroom Friday after a fire alarm sounded as he delivered a speech.
The alarm went off just after Clinton began his speech at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, awarded for corporate innovation. A fire had broken out in the hotel’s laundry room.
Apparently unaware of the fire, Clinton tried to continue his remarks after joking about the noise.
When three uniformed Secret Service officers entered the ballroom and motioned for the audience of about 1,000 to leave, Clinton calmly walked out with Commerce Secretary Bill Daley.
They were taken down a stairwell and driven back to the White House, spokesman Joe Lockhart said.
Fire Department spokesman Capt. Brian Lee said the fire marshal, working with the Secret Service, decided to evacuate because of a possibility that the fire might spread through the hotel’s air ducts.
There were no injuries.
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