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Guests forced from rooms after fire in Wilkes-Barre hotel

Fire officials are investigating after an early morning fire in the city.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Update:

The cleanup is underway at a downtown Wilkes-Barre hotel after an early morning fire forced dozens from their rooms.

It was a fire at one of the worst possible times, just before 5 a.m., when dozens of guests at the Genetti Hotel & Conference Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre were sleeping.

"I was a little scared," Dewayne Webb said. "I wanted to get out. There was a fire, and I had to get my wife out of bed. I seen other people in the hallway, and they were scared too."

The fire alarm, plus people pounding on his door, alerted Dewayne Webb to the danger of fire in a second-floor room and the building at East Market and South Pennsylvania filling with smoke.

Nahim Pettaford was two floors above the burning room.

"All you could see is smoke coming up," Pettaford recalled. "We were thinking the fire is right in front of us. As we were going down, the smoke was getting darker."

Fire in a hotel of this size presents a big set of challenges. What firefighters had to do was get six floors of people out of their rooms and down to safety.

Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney says the fire was in the older section of the downtown landmark. They had to move about 75 people, and most of the guests were allowed back in their rooms a couple of hours after the fire was out.

"We put a plan in place to isolate the fire area of the old hotel, and the majority of it, 95 percent, is fine," Chief Delaney said.

Dozens of people were awakened and moved. No one hurt.

"It was pretty organized, you know. They got us all down here in the ballroom where it was warm," Tom Miller said.

Fire officials say only six to eight rooms were affected by the fire, and those guests are moving to different rooms. 

The room where the fire started was empty. The man who rented it is in the hospital, not related to the fire.

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