The Sheraton hotel in downtown Phoenix is back in business. It reopened Friday morning after being closed for six days because of an electrical fire.
Fire inspectors are still not sure what ignited the fire last Saturday. Phoenix Fire Inspector Brian Scholl said there were two problems with restoring hotel service.
The electricity was out and fire pump wasn’t working. A fire pump adds pressure to the sprinkler system to have enough water pressure to have working sprinklers on all 31 floors. According to Scholl, power was restored Monday night, but the lingering issue was the pump.
“So without that fire pump we don’t have adequate sprinklers from the third floor all the way up," he said. "The transformer that was affected was directly tied into the fire pump, so once that went it actually caused the controller to malfunction.”
The hotel had to evacuate 800 guests and relocate more than 1,400 guests through the week. It opened in time to host a banquet dinner for more than 850 people Saturday evening, but is under capacity for reservations.