Spanish summit team flee hotel fire

A fire at a Brussels hotel forced the evacuation of Spain’s prime minister and other members of the country’s delegation to the European Union summit, Spanish officials said.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his team were unhurt in the fire at the Hilton hotel, Zapatero’s office said in a news release.

The fire broke out in a room on the 14th floor – where some members of the Spanish delegation were staying – when a halogen lamp set some curtains ablaze, the statement said, quoting firefighters in Brussels.

Zapatero and Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos were staying on the 20th floor of the hotel. Security officers led them down a fire escape to the lobby.

“At that point, visibility on some of the floors of the hotel was impaired because of the smoke from the fire and it was getting hard to breathe,” the statement said.

It said the fire broke out around 9am (8am Irish time) and that the Spanish delegation left Brussels as scheduled an hour later.