Scores Evacuated in Hotel Fire

Five people were injured and 70 people evacuated from a downtown San Diego hotel Wednesday morning when fire sent smoke through several floors of the building, causing about $85,000 in damage, a Fire Department spokesman said.

Firefighters were able to confine the three-alarm blaze to a second-floor storage area of the Maryland Hotel, in the 600 block of F Street. Four people suffered smoke inhalation, said San Diego Fire Department spokesman Dan Goebel. They were treated at UCSD Medical Center and released. A fifth suffered a minor leg injury during the evacuation.

In all, 75 firefighters from 18 units responded to the 1 a.m. blaze, Goebel said. Fire investigators are still trying to determine its cause.

The hotel has been the scene of several recent blazes. “This is probably the fifth fire there in the past year and a half,” said Detective John Buono of the Metro Arson Task Force. At least two of those fires were set in trash bins, but the hotel has since kept those areas locked, Buono said.