STROUDSBURG -- One of the busiest streets in Monroe County was shut down when the roof of a hotel caught fire Friday.
That fire started during lunch hour right in the middle of downtown Stroudsburg.
There was a lot of commotion during lunch hour when the fire broke out on the roof of the Pocono Inne Town Hotel.
Emergency vehicles lined several blocks of Main Street in downtown Stroudsburg after the roof of a hotel caught fire shortly after noon.
The Stroudsburg fire chief says the fire started while a crew was working near an air circulation unit at the Pocono Inne Town at the corner of Main and Seventh Streets.
"I believe they were working with torches, they turned their backs for a few minutes, they came back and the roof was on fire," said Stroudsburg Fire Chief Mike Seip.
Firefighters say they were able to keep the fire from spreading to other floors, but the structure of the roof presented a challenge.
"We had to rip and tear the roof apart, make sure the fire did not extend through any voids. The roof had got many layers."
In order to get all their equipment to the hotel and fight the fire, firefighters had to close down Seventh Street and Main Street during lunch hour.
The hotel was evacuated along with two restaurants on the ground floor. The owner of the restaurants hoped to reopen by dinnertime.
"It is not a good thing. It is not a good thing, especially on a holiday Friday when a lot of people treat themselves to go out for lunch," said owner Barry Lynch.
A frustrated guest was waiting for his room to be ready when the fire started.
"You could smell the smoke, then we were all told to evacuate," said Vinnie Neville. "The whole weekend isn't going well."
In all the commotion, hotel managers did not seem sure about how many people are staying there Friday night, but they did tell us the hotel is mostly empty because of the remodeling underway.
