By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A candle left burning on a cabinet Wednesday caused a fire that forced the evacuation of the Hilton Garden Inn at Great Falls Plaza.

Four rooms were damaged by smoke and water, but fire officials said safety equipment inside the six-story hotel stopped the blaze from spreading beyond the room where it began.

The 3:15 p.m. fire was contained to a room on the third floor, where flames burned through a cabinet and spread to some nearby materials. Heat from the flames set off a sprinkler system, which doused the fire, investigators said.

“The hotel was built to safety standards, and the system did exactly what it’s designed to do,” said Auburn Fire Prevention Officer Gary Simard. “Yes, there is quite a bit of damage, but it’s repairable.”

The hotel was evacuated as fire and rescue crews responded. No one was inside the room where the fire began and nobody was hurt, Simard said.

The candle had been left unattended earlier Wednesday and eventually burned itself down to a nub. Flames burned through a cardboard tray and then into the cabinet, Simard said.

“Once it got to the point where the heat escaped from underneath the cabinet, it set off a sprinkler head,” Simard said.

The room where the fire began was heavily damaged by fire, smoke, heat and water. An adjoining room sustained water and smoke damage, while two rooms below were damaged by water, Simard said.

Those four rooms were closed for the rest of the day while hotel staff cleaned and ordered necessary repairs. Simard guessed that most, if not all, of the rooms would be ready for occupancy by the end of the week.

The financial damage was not immediately known. Simard was called to investigate the cause and quickly found that the candle was the source of the blaze.

The woman staying in the room that burned was moved to another part of the hotel for the remainder of her stay.

While firefighters were snuffing out hot spots and cleaning up smoke and water damage, police closed off a part of Great Falls Plaza to traffic. The closure caused minor backups on the Longely Bridge, but no major problems.