On Saturday at 10:51 a.m., the Manhattan Fire Department was dispatched to 530 Richards Drive, The Double Tree by Hilton, for a report of an unknown hazmat situation. Upon arrival, crews found elevated carbon monoxide levels inside the hotel. The hotel was evacuated to allow crews to monitor the atmospheric conditions throughout the building. Riley County EMS transported two hotel guests to Ascension Via Christi and evaluated several other guests on scene. A total of 12 firefighters on 4 fire apparatus responded to the incident. The last units cleared at 3:00 p.m. after ventilating the building.
The hotel owner is listed as SMP Manhattan LLC and Deepak & Madhumeetah Dhar. The cause of the carbon monoxide incident was determined to be the pool heater and inoperable exhaust fans for the heating system. After ventilating the building, occupants were allowed to return to the hotel.
The Manhattan Fire Department is an ISO Class I, career fire department, serving the City of Manhattan from five fire stations. The department provides fire, emergency medical first response, technician-level hazardous material response, and technical rescue, including vehicle extrication, trench, high and low angle, surface water, structural collapse, and wide area search. The department serves as a Type I regional hazardous materials response team through the State Fire Marshal, primarily serving 8 counties in the surrounding area. MFD is part of Northeast Task Force 2, a search and rescue/water rescue team with other area departments, and is tasked to cover 23 counties for urban search and rescue response.
