Dozens of firefighters respond to 2-alarm fire at Northwest DC hotel

WASHINGTON — Firefighters in D.C. are working quickly to extinguish a two-alarm fire at a Northwest D.C. luxury hotel.

Crews were called to the 900 block of F Street Northwest in the Penn Quarter neighborhood for a report of a fire around 4 a.m. Friday. Once firefighters got on scene, they found a 10-story building, the Riggs Washington hotel, with flames showing from the sixth floor of the building that had extended to the seventh floor. A second-alarm was called to get more firefighters to the scene to help extinguish the flames and evacuate people from the building. 

In a tweet, DC Fire and EMS estimated about 100 firefighters and 20 fire trucks were responding to the scene. 

Vito Maggiolo, a spokesperson for the department, could not say whether the fire was caused by severe weather in the area Thursday night. 

Maggiolo tells WUSA9 that the building has been evacuated and all people inside of the hotel have made it out safely. No injuries have been reported. It's not clear how many people were evacuated.

Maggiolo said the fire has been extinguished, but firefighters remain on scene conducting a full search of the hotel and monitoring the fire for any potential flair ups. 

Some roads in the area are closed due to the fire activity. DC Fire and EMS says the 700-1000 blocks of F Street, NW, between 7th and 11th Streets, as well as the 500-600 blocks of 9th Street, NW, between E and G Streets are closed as of 4:55 a.m. Drivers are told to expect delays and asked to use alternate routes.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

According to the Riggs Washington website, the hotel has 181 guest rooms and suites and is located in the historic Riggs National Bank building. Firefighters did not have an estimate of damage caused to the hotel.

This is a developing story. We are working to gather additional details. Stay with WUSA9 for the latest updates as they come in to our newsroom.