A hotel basement in Zalakaros, a charming and popular Hungarian town near Lake Balaton – filled with smoke in the early hours of Monday after towels caught fire in the laundry, forcing nearly 400 people to evacuate the building. Firefighters prevented a more serious disaster through swift intervention, though one employee suffered mild smoke inhalation.
Emergency services were alerted shortly after 2.30am on Monday to a hotel in Zalakaros, where a fire had broken out in a laundry room located in the basement. According to official information, towels ignited, producing a significant volume of smoke that necessitated immediate action.
Professional firefighters from Zalakaros and nearby Nagykanizsa were dispatched to the scene. Zsolt Kósi, spokesman for the Zala County Disaster Management Directorate, said crews extinguished the fire within a short time before ventilating the basement using industrial fans. Thanks to the rapid response, the blaze did not spread to other parts of the building.
Lake Balaton hotel evacuated – hundreds had to leave their rooms
The entire hotel was evacuated while firefighting and ventilation operations were under way. In total, 380 people – guests and staff – were forced to leave the premises in the early hours. Authorities reported that the evacuation was relatively brief, with guests and employees able to return to the building just over half an hour later.
According to information from the Hungarian news agency MTI, one hotel employee was taken to hospital with mild smoke inhalation. No other injuries or serious health effects have been reported.
The precise cause of the fire has not yet been disclosed. Based on publicly available and officially confirmed information, it is known that the flames originated among towels stored in the basement laundry, with dense smoke posing the greatest danger.
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