The Extended Stay America hotel at 4105 E. Willow Street in Long Beach. Photo courtesy Google Maps.
The Extended Stay America hotel at 4105 E. Willow Street in Long Beach. Photo courtesy Google Maps.

Fire crews evacuated a hotel near the Long Beach Airport after a small blaze set off an alarm and sent smoke wafting into a hallway.

The blaze started in a trash chute around 5:45 a.m., Long Beach Fire Department Capt. Matt Dobberpuhl said. It was at the Extended Stay America on Willow Street just west of Lakewood Boulevard.

The flames were relatively minor, but they triggered the evacuation, according to Dobberpuhl.

“There wasn’t a lot of fire,” he said. “It was mostly smoke that got into the second-floor hallway.”

Nobody was hurt, but firefighters had to douse the flames and clean up some water and smoke on the second floor.

“All the residents have been allowed to go back in at this point,” Dobberpuhl said around 8 a.m.

Crews are still investigating exactly how the blaze started.

Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.