Glad no one got hurt.
"HIGH SPRINGS - A man was temporarily trapped in his motel room when scuba diving gear he was charging caught fire at the door of a room at the Cadillac Motel early Friday morning, Nov. 26.
The man had apparently fallen asleep as he was charging two underwater "scooters," designed to pull a diver along. There was some sort of short in the lithium battery charging system and the system overheated, catching fire, according to High Springs Fire Chief Verne Riggall.
He said the fire ignited both scooters (each costing $5,000), then lit the carpeting and the curtains as it moved up the wall.
Other motel tenants noticed the fire and began beating on the door, waking the man inside. He escaped outside a rear window.
Firefighters arrived three minutes after getting the 911 call to find that other tenants had fire extinguishers out, attacking the blaze.
High Springs firefighters got the fire under control quickly, thanks to the quick thinking of the tenants and hotel management, Riggall said.
Anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000 in damage was done to the room itself.
Riggall said that while the Cadillac Motel is an older motel, each room is separated by a concrete wall, making the spreading of a fire from one room to another very difficult.
"HIGH SPRINGS - A man was temporarily trapped in his motel room when scuba diving gear he was charging caught fire at the door of a room at the Cadillac Motel early Friday morning, Nov. 26.
The man had apparently fallen asleep as he was charging two underwater "scooters," designed to pull a diver along. There was some sort of short in the lithium battery charging system and the system overheated, catching fire, according to High Springs Fire Chief Verne Riggall.
He said the fire ignited both scooters (each costing $5,000), then lit the carpeting and the curtains as it moved up the wall.
Other motel tenants noticed the fire and began beating on the door, waking the man inside. He escaped outside a rear window.
Firefighters arrived three minutes after getting the 911 call to find that other tenants had fire extinguishers out, attacking the blaze.
High Springs firefighters got the fire under control quickly, thanks to the quick thinking of the tenants and hotel management, Riggall said.
Anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000 in damage was done to the room itself.
Riggall said that while the Cadillac Motel is an older motel, each room is separated by a concrete wall, making the spreading of a fire from one room to another very difficult.
