Tree Fire Rouses Disney Guests

About 2,300 guests at a Disneyland Resort hotel were rousted from their rooms early Wednesday after a towering artificial Christmas tree on the ground floor caught fire about 3 a.m. There were no major injuries.

The guests spent three hours in the hotel’s convention center, in theaters at Disney’s California Adventure theme park and at a nearby hotel before returning to the 745-room Grand Californian.

By midafternoon, it was practically business as usual as the hotel prepared for another sold-out night. Part of the lobby remained cordoned off as workers hustled to replace carpeting and prepared to repaint the soot-damaged ceiling.

“I never would have thought I would have come to Disneyland to be part of an evacuation,” said Michael Fenbrick, 34, who brought his family from Phoenix for a two-day visit and remained at the hotel Wednesday night.

He was awakened by the fire alarm, fled the hotel with his family and spent several hours in the theater of the Soaring Over California ride at California Adventure, where they were offered blankets and pastries.

“I thought it was some kid who pulled the handle,” he said. “But when I opened the door, I immediately knew there was a real fire. I saw the smoke and I smelled it.”

The fire began midway up the 35-foot tree when employees attempted to change a string of holiday lights, said hotel spokesman Rob Doughty.

Guests, who saw strobe-light alerts in their rooms and heard hallway alarms, were evacuated as a precaution. Doughty said that within four minutes of the alarm, the guests were out of the fully occupied hotel.

“I heard someone saying ‘The tree is on fire.’ I just felt a sense of disbelief,” said Daniel Payne, 19, of Calgary, Canada, who was with his parents in a third-floor room. “Things were pretty controlled though. We just had to proceed out the door.”

Thick smoke spread throughout the atrium that is surrounded by guest rooms, activating a sprinkler system and other alarms. Two people were treated for minor injuries.

One person suffered from anxiety and another from a bad back, said Anaheim Fire Department spokeswoman Maria Sabol. She said an investigation concluded that the cause of the fire was an electrical problem, but Disney would continue to investigate the incident.

“Investigating this thoroughly is very important to us,” said Doughty. “Whatever we learn we will share with all of our hotels around the world.”

News of the fire quickly spread among the guests of hotels around Disneyland. Fred Woods, a guest at the Anabella Hotel, heard the fire engines, then learned about the incident on television.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Woods of Oakland, who comes to Disneyland each year for a week. “You think Disney takes care of every detail, particularly safety. You can’t imagine they would get into a problem like this, over a string of lights.”

The damage to the hotel was mostly from water, which soaked the carpet and furniture in the lobby.

Those evacuated said they were able to return to their rooms about 7 a.m. Doughty declined to estimate the cost of the damage. Hotel guests were not charged for their eventful night, he said.

Jim Bingham, 48, and his family from Santee in eastern San Diego County were jolted awake. “The kids were screaming and crying because of the alarm, and we had to calm them down as we dressed to get out of our room,” said Bingham, an engineer-paramedic with the Santee Fire Department. A 28-year fire veteran, Bingham’s experience with fire alarms told him that the chances were high it was a false alarm.

But when he looked out of his room’s balcony and saw smoke, he said he knew this was no drill. Eventually, they found their way to a downstairs restaurant that served as a temporary refuge.

“They didn’t want us to stay there and told us we had to evacuate the building,” he said. They were then escorted to California Adventure.

Afterward, David Hemthorne, 39, from Phoenix, gave Disney high marks and complimented the hotel staff on “taking very good care of us.”