Rosemont Hotel Evacuated After Pipes Burst

ROSEMONT, Ill. (STMW) -- Nearly 300 guests at a northwest suburban hotel awoke to a fire alarm Thursday morning and were evacuated to the lobby after a frozen pipe in the sprinkler system burst.

Firefighters responded to the fire alarm about 6:40 a.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton at 5460 N. River Rd. in Rosemont, fire officials said. Icy weather conditions and frozen pipes caused the fire system to burst near a service elevator on the ninth floor.

Nearly 300 guests were evacuated from their rooms as fire alarms sounded and police and firefighters responded, according to Mayra Diaz, a front desk agent at the hotel. Guests were asked to wait in the lobby, as "it was just too cold for them to go outside."

After about 20 minutes, guests were able to return to their rooms about 7 a.m., Diaz said.

"They thought it was a fire drill," she said. "But we would never wake our guests up this early for a drill."

By 8:30 a.m., all of the water had been cleared out, Diaz said. But, as more than a foot of water poured from the burst pipe, the service elevator remained out of order while the hotel's maintenance crew worked to repair damage.

Because the pipe burst near a back hallway, no guest rooms were damaged and there were no injuries, Diaz said.

"I'm glad we got it fixed," Diaz said. "Now we just need to make sure maintenance takes care of the elevator, to make sure none of our housekeepers are in danger because they're the ones that use it."

Rosemont