According to a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue spokesperson, a transformer on the first level of the building caught fire due to a water leak.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A blown electrical transformer at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Riverfront hotel sent hundreds of people attending an event in the building outside on Saturday.
According to a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue spokesperson, a transformer on the first level of the building caught fire due to a water leak, causing the evacuation.
Witnesses reported seeing smoke coming from inside the building along with no electricity.
No injuries have been reported.
The fire is out, JFRD said, and it is up to building management and JEA to determine when guests and staff can go back inside.
The president of LivePURE, a health and wellness company based out of Texas, said his company has been leasing a space for an event at the Hyatt for the last two days when he was told everyone had to evacuate.
“Today, we had to switch rooms because of some leaking in the ceiling, and then all of sudden they came, the fire marshal came, and said there might be an issue, and now there’s fire trucks and ambulances here,” LivePURE President Rick Redford said. “It’s a little bit of an inconvenience, but you know what, it’s all about safety.”
One person attending the conference said no fire alarms went off.
“The crazy thing was, there was no alarm, we were just told to evacuate,” said Margaret Omowaiye, who was at the event. “The fire marshals came, but it was really quiet like no one even said anything to us about why it happened, or what’s happened.”
Witnesses said the hotel elevator is down, and some visitors have had to climb at least 10 flights of stairs to recover luggage from their rooms.
A handful of people said they had health conditions and couldn’t make it up that many flights of stairs to get their bags, so they are just waiting to see what happens next.
Some of the visitors told First Coast News the hotel is getting them another hotel across the river, others are still waiting to figure out where they need to go.
First Coast News reached out to Hyatt for comment and was told a statement will be released shortly.
