I'm going to bump this because lately I've been torturing myself by googling fire alarms and hotel fires at four in the morning, and I just got this thread as a result.

I just remembered that this summer in Barcelona, during one of the mornings of our stay at the Fira Palace, there was a fire. My mother and I were in the lobby, and I was on one of the free computers, and all of a sudden she pointed out that there was a thick cloud of smoke in the air. I'm about 5'5" and I think it reached about chin level from the ceiling. I definitely didn't hear a fire alarm and I didn't smell a thing until my mother pointed out the smoke cloud. I eventually smelled burning plastic.

Thankfully, we were about to leave the building anyway, but the (automatic) revolving door wasn't working and the automatic door was stuck open. Now that I think about it, the reason so few people left the building must have been that they'd already left for the day, but people took the elevators down to the lobby, and again, I never heard the fire alarm.

I don't think anyone ever told us the reason for the fire, though it was assumed to be something burning in the parking lot.

And if my family takes a vacation somewhere warm in December, I really hope it's not to San Juan...