Pop superstar Rihanna was one of 300 guests evacuated from a hotel on Whitehall Place, SW1 after a small fire in a service lift shaft this morning.
The ‘stand there and watch me burn’ singer tweeted a picture of a fire engine from the London Fire Brigade outside the hotel to her 23.5 million followers.
Watch Manager Javan Day, who was at the scene along with the officer in charge Watch Manager Tim Marcham, said:
“The hotel staff were excellent and followed their evacuation plans to the letter. We dealt with the incident very quickly and fortunately the guests weren’t outside for too long.
“I heard whispers that there was a famous tennis player at the hotel but had no idea Rihanna was evacuated. This is not the first time I’ve been at a fire involving a singer. About 17 years ago I rescued Sinitta’s dog from a house fire in Fulham. I would rather have met Rihanna.”
The fire caused a small amount of damage to a lift on the 7th floor of the hotel. No one was injured.
The Brigade was called at 0622 and the incident was over at 0752. Around 10 firefighters from Soho and Westminster attended the incident.
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