Post #281829 by AlohaStation on Tue, Jan 30, 2007 6:43 AM

Early morning customers help snuff out fire at landmark Bahia Cabana

By Macollvie Jean-François
sun-sentinel.com
Posted January 30 2007, 8:44 AM EST

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Regular patrons at a landmark beach bar and hotel helped save it from burning down early Tuesday when a fire broke out outside the hotel.

Customers at the bar in the Days Inn Bahia Cabana Beach Resort saw flames coming from near the entrance at 3001 Harbor Drive around 1:30 a.m. and quickly grabbed extinguishers to put it out, said employee Mark Michalak. He called 911, sending Fort Lauderdale firefighters from their station next door to the 70-room hotel to take over.

No one was injured or evacuated during the incident.

Hours later, the outside wall on the right side was blackened, its wooden planks the only signs of a fire.

"It could've been a lot worse," Buff Rhinehart, the hotel's maintenance supervisor, said. "It's not too bad. It's more superficial than anything."

The cause of the fire is undetermined, said Lois Bowman, division chief at Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue.