Up In Smoke
Hurricane iconic hotel catches fire near NASA, forcing starry night evacuation
Hotel guests near Johnson Space Center had a night under the stars Tuesday after a small blaze brought about a large-scale evacuation at the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake.
Area fire fighters arrived around 2 a.m. to find smoke billowing into the hotel lobby. Officials decked out in ventilation gear quickly traced the fire to a second-floor laundry room.
While sprinklers extinguished most of the flames, concerns about smoky conditions forced nearly 300 patrons and employees to the hotel parking lot, according to KTRK Ch. 13. Roughly 90 minutes later, guests returned to their rooms.
Hotel management tells CultureMap Tuesday that the facility is "100 percent back in action." No injuries were reported.
Perched along the water, the Clear Lake Hilton was a hot spot for news reporters looking for a front row seat to Hurricane Ike, which made landfall in nearby Galveston five years ago this September. It suffered substantial damage during the storm, which would become Texas' costliest storm in history.
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Photo by Leonid Furmansky