MORE then 200 guests had to be evacuated from a city-centre hotel when a fire broke out.
The blaze started in the health club of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Wollaton Street, at about 2.30am yesterday, forcing the hotel's 221 guests to flee.
Among them were Durham County Cricket Club players.
No one was hurt but the fire took more than two hours and three fire engines to put out, and the cause is still unknown.
Hotel general manager David Clements, who was called into the hotel at 3am, said: "My team and I care very much about the hotel and it's genuinely upsetting to go through the experience that we did last night. But the one thing that we're all incredibly grateful about is the fact that nobody got hurt.
"The damage is fairly self-contained. The leisure club area of the hotel is a separate pod to the hotel so we have services back on in the main part of the hotel."
There was a previous alarm at 1.30am but guests were told to return to their beds after the fire service checked the hotel.
The cause of the false alarm is also unclear, although Mr Clements said: "There's certainly no fault on the alarm system and everything was checked by the fire brigade."
Local pub The Tap N Tumbler hosted the evacuees. Landlady Claire McGuire, who lives above the pub, said: "I had just finished work but they all gathered in their dressing gowns outside so I felt a bit sorry for them. They were all tired and cold, so I let them come in and sit.
"A regular stayed with me after they'd all gone back in after the first alarm, and I was just letting him out when they came back after the second one! So I let them all back in again. It was a late one."
Durham County Cricket Club players were at the hotel before the final day of their County Championship match against Notts at Trent Bridge, which – despite the drama – they won yesterday. Players tweeted about "smoke everywhere".
Crews from Central Fire Station were called to the blaze.
At about 4.30am, guests were found accommodation at nearby hotels, including the Holiday Inn Express on Chapel Bar, the Ramada on Wollaton Street and the Park Plaza on Maid Marian Way.
A spokeswoman for the cricket club said: "At 1.30am there was a false alarm and they were evacuated. They went back to the hotel and at 2.30am the real alarm went off and they were evacuated again. They had to go to another hotel down the road and they had to spend a couple of hours down there.
"That was about 4.35am so they only got a few hours' sleep. The game started at 11am so they definitely had a bit of a rough night.
"It is not ideal in the middle of a game, but these things can't be helped."
A Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said eight firefighters wearing breathing apparatus fought the flames using two hose reels, a thermal imaging camera and a ventilation fan.
Mr Clements added: "We would personally like to put on record our thanks to our colleagues because their support was invaluable to us as we tried to look after our guests in difficult circumstances.
"It's all about competition in the city, but last night it was amazing how everyone pulled together."
