Chattanooga firefighters extinguished a fire that started in the letter "M" in the sign for the Chattanooga Marriott Downtown hotel sign facing Carter Street Sunday afternoon.
No injuries were reported, but hotel guests and staff were evacuated as a precaution, fire department spokesman Bruce Garner said.
The fire was contained to the exterior of the building, Garner said. Aerial ladders were brought in to spray water on the sign atop the high rise building and another group of firefighters went to the roof to access the sign from there.
Garner said the fire was quickly put out.
There was no word yet on the cause of the fire as of Sunday night, and hotel staff said they were not at liberty to comment on behalf of the company.
Adam Asta was standing on a sidewalk across from the building as firefighters put out the flames. He said he was asleep in his room on the 11th floor when he heard the alarms and ran down the stairs. He didn't have his shoes on.
Another man, Calvin Wright, was waiting with a group of friends for the OK to go back inside. He said he was walking back to the hotel when he saw smoke and flames coming out of the "M" near the roof and some of the bushes below caught fire before they were put out by hotel staff, he said.
It was pretty out of the ordinary, he said.