Waterford -- The New London and Waterford fire departments extinguished a small exterior fire Sunday afternoon at the Springhill Suites, a hotel at 401 North Frontage Road.

Firefighters responded at about 2:30 p.m. It took crews approximately 45 minutes to put the fire out.

Waterford Fire Marshal Peter Schlink said no one was injured. He said the fire started outside in some mulch and damaged a small part of the exterior of the hotel.

 “It was confined mostly to the exterior. One of the façade columns at the entrance – it looked like what happened was the mulch caught fire at the base of it,” Schlink said. “One of the managers of the hotel saw it, went out and got the garden hose, and put most of it out, but he saw some smoke inside of the columns, so he called the fire department.”

Smoke got in the hotel from the HVAC system, Schlink said, so there was a smell of smoke inside. Everyone in the building was evacuated until firefighters cleared people to go back inside.

“Firefighters opened up the fake façade and they checked it for extension to make sure there was nothing burning in there,” Schlink said. “They pulled out some smoking pieces of wood inside there.”

Schlink said the cause of the fire was likely “carelessly discarded smoking material.”