Unattended cooking caused the evacuation of Invercargill’s Ibis Styles Hotel on Tuesday morning.
Invercargill Fire Service senior station officer Duane Shannon said a pot had been left on a stove top, then left unattended.
“People need to keep looking while they’re cooking,” Shannon said.
Six crews and a command unit were called to the fire on the third floor of the apartment hotel on Tay St just after 6am.
The hotel’s duty manager Jason Epps-Eades said there was no fire, just a lot of smoke.
It caused the alarms to trigger and the hotel’s guests were evacuated.
Fans were brought in to help clear the smoke and there was no damage.
Fire crews were at the scene for just over an hour.
