A volunteer during Saturday’s firefighting effort in the hotel’s laundry room. (Photo courtesy of Red Bank Fire Department. Click to enlarge.)

A fire in the basement laundry room prompted a brief evacuation of Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn Saturday afternoon.

The fire was located behind the heavy-duty dryers, said Chief Hartman. (Photo courtesy of Red Bank Fire Department. Click to enlarge.)

Responding to a 2:30 p.m. report of smoke, firefighters learned that hotel workers, used dry-chem extinguishers, had “held in check” a fire behind the dryers, Chief Wayne Hartman told redbankgreen Sunday.

The fire was still evident in a hard-to-access wall where dryer vents exited the building, he said. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and spent the next hour or so ventilating the area, he said.

No injuries occurred, Hartman said. The 106-room Riverside Avenue hotel was briefly emptied of guests and employees, he said.

Though the laundry room was filled with heavy smoke, the rest of the hotel was unaffected by it, Hartman said. The dryers are temporarily out of service, he said.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation by the Monmouth County fire marshal’s office in the absence of borough Fire Marshal Tommy Welsh.

Earlier this month, the department stopped a fire next door to the hotel in an apartment on the third floor of the Colony House apartment building.

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