A hotel in Ocala was evacuated early Tuesday morning after a 16-year-old girl allegedly set a couch on fire in one of the hallways.
Shortly before 3:25 a.m., multiple Ocala Fire Rescue units were dispatched to the Hilton Ocala located at 3600 SW 36th Avenue due to reports of a structure fire.
Upon arrival at the nine-story hotel, OFR crews entered the lobby and observed moderate smoke. Multiple alarms were sounding due to the fire, and the hotel’s sprinkler system was also active.
Ocala police officers were also at the hotel to assist with evacuating guests from the premises.
Hotel staff directed firefighters to a first-floor hallway near one of the banquet rooms. According to OFR, smoke conditions in this area of the hotel worsened, and firefighters utilized a thermal imaging camera to locate a couch near the wall that was on fire.
With assistance from the sprinkler system, firefighters used a watering can to extinguish the flames on the couch within seven minutes of arriving on scene.
There were no injuries reported, and hotel guests were able to return to their rooms that same morning, according to OFR.
Prior to the arrival of firefighters at the hotel, the Ocala Police Department had received a 911 call from a 16-year-old girl who admitted that she had started the fire. An OPD officer responded to the hotel and made contact with the girl’s mother.
According to OPD, the girl’s mother advised that they were both from Illinois, and they were visiting Ocala on their way to Daytona. The mother stated that she had been fighting with her daughter all night, which was not abnormal for them, and the mother had rented a separate room for the night to give her daughter some space.
The mother recalled hearing the fire alarm, and she found her daughter standing outside in the parking lot. The OPD report stated that the mother then told investigators, “I don’t want anyone speaking to (my daughter), she’s a minor and I need a lawyer.”
The OPD report stated that the floors inside the hotel were “sopping wet with water” in the southwest section of the hotel. A majority of the water was from the sprinkler system. A pile of char and ashes was observed where the couch had been, and black soot had traveled up the wall and to the ceiling. The damage to the hotel was estimated at approximately $200,000.
According to OPD, the hotel’s video surveillance footage showed the 16-year-old girl roaming the hallway at 2:26 a.m. Shortly before 3:20 a.m., she was observed walking to the couch where the fire originated, and she appeared to use a Bic-style lighter to light the corner of a pillow on fire that was resting on the couch. She then exited the hotel and walked to the parking lot where she was later located.
Outside of the hotel, officers found a blue lighter with an extended flame spout, similar to the one seen on the surveillance footage, in the area where the girl was located.
The girl was arrested and transported to Marion County Juvenile Detention Center. She is being charged with arson (occupied structure) and criminal mischief (damages greater than $1,000).