Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - An overnight fire left an estimated $3 million in damage to the Buffalo Grand Hotel in Downtown Buffalo.
"A little before 1 a.m. EST, Buffalo Police reported smoke in the area of the parking garage. That was reported to our dispatch office," said Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo on Thursday. "Upon arrival, our crews investigated in the area of the parking garage, and they quickly determined the fire was actually in the banquet room located above the garage."
Three alarms were sounded and sent multiple crews to the scene to battle the blaze. Before 3 a.m. EST, the fire was declared under control.
Renaldo says about 40 to 50 guests in the hotel were evacuated for a time as a precaution. Everyone has since checked out of the hotel, and it remains unclear as to when the hotel will re-open to the public.
"The guest section of the building is functional. The fire was contained to the third floor ballroom area and the kitchen," said owner of the Buffalo Grand Hotel, Harry Stinson.
According to Renaldo, Buffalo fire had approximately nine pumpers and seven trucks on location, as well as about 60 firefighters on scene. When firefighters discovered where the fire was compared to the main entrance of the building, the distance from the fire trucks to the scene made efforts extremely difficult.
"Logistically there were a lot of challenges," Renaldo said. "Dragging hose the entire distance, equipment, getting personnel there, re-supplying air, because it took so long to get to the scene of the fire. Firefighters on station were able to only work for a short period of time, then they had to evacuate, change air bottles, and go back to work again. Really manpower intensive, and, logistically, it was very challenging."
According to Stinson, the ballroom of the Buffalo Grand Hotel had just undergone extensive renovation. Other than a few touch ups with paint and some new carpet that needed installing, the new ballroom had just been completed.
"That's the most heartbreaking part of it. It was quite spectacular, and now it's basically all black," Stinson said. "The ceilings are down, there's inches of water from the sprinklers and the firemen, there are walls melted. It's just a mess up there."
The fire also happened just hours after Stinson had signed paperwork to join the Wyndham Hotel network and change the Buffalo Grand Hotel into a Ramada Hotel.
While Stinson says the third floor kitchen is destroyed and the ballroom is "not pleasant", he believes this can be a positive for the future of the hotel going forward.
"Given that there's nothing one can do about turning back the clock, I would say this is a phoenix moment," Stinson said. "Certainly the hotel, in its early days, it was the talk of the town, it was the place in town. Our intent was to bring it back to that level, and if anything, no we have no choice but to do that.
"The intent was to put a condominium hotel on the second section of land, where the open parking lot is now, and build a new tower there completely from scratch. Maintain the hotel as it is, the 486 guest rooms, as a completely self-contained hotel, the new section would be residential, and then the conference center would be in-between."
Renaldo said that one firefighter did suffer a minor injury during the blaze, but remained on duty.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.