The Emerald Sands Inn, located on Highway 90, Milton experienced a fire in one of its rooms on May 21. According to owner Scott Kaufmann, staff and tenants’ actions were able to alert authorities and avert further damage.
Kaufmann said he is proud of the way the tenants and staff responded in negating a possible dangerous situation of a potential fire. “We have people who live there and watch out for the area. We had an immediate response. They stopped the fire and the tenants called the front desk. They responded immediately,” he said.
Charlene Ford, manager of Emerald Sands Inn, said the fire was minimal in the room. “You could barely tell it was there,” she said, “The response was so fast.”
Kaufmann and his staff are well known at United Way Santa Rosa. Milton Mayor Guy Thompson, chief executive officer UWSR, said Kaufmann was eager to help the community when UWSR needed a local hotel to bring emergency shelter monies to the county.
“We needed a partner with UWSR to meet grant standards, which was $130,000 to provide emergency shelter assistance for people who needed short term shelter, resulting from both natural disasters and the economy,” he said. “Emerald Sands Inn partnered with us and 49 families were helped,” said Thompson.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Staff and tenants saved the day during fire at Emerald Sands