Features

Mattress burns at hotel

Staff
Wednesday May 17, 2000

Firefighters arrived at the Cal Hotel at 2008 Shattuck Ave. about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday to find that a fire in a mattress and box spring already had been extinguished with a dry chemical. 

Capt. Malcolm Greene from Fire Station 2 said a smoke alarm had alerted the son of the hotel’s manager. A tenant in a studio in the residential hotel apparently was smoking in bed, Greene said, and threw his cigarette toward the trashcan but missed 

Firefighters made the standard initial response to what is classified now as a Condition A or minimal fire, Greene said. 

A box spring with a burned off cover showing the wooden slats underneath was brought down into the street with the mattress, but the damage from smoke was negligible as it was from water. Greene said the firefighters used about one gallon of water inside.