Eighteen people were hospitalized briefly early Thursday after suffering smoke inhalation following a dawn fire that ripped through a linen store in a five-star Amman hotel, officials said.
"Firefighters battled with the blaze for one hour and prevented it from spreading to other parts of the Meridien Hotel," a spokesman for the civil defense told AFP.
Civil defense teams and firefighters successfully evacuated the hotel's 371 guests as they put out the flames but 18 people, most of them hotel employees, suffered from smoke inhalation and were taken to hospital for first aid.
He said the fire broke out at around 5:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) in a huge linen store on the second floor of the hotel for reasons as yet unknown - AMMAN (AFP)
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