Insurer Seeks $1.83M In Virginia Beach Hotel Microwave Fire

May 22--NORFOLK -- In 2015, Tina Grimes left a microwave running unattended in her Virginia Beach hotel room, according to court documents. It started a fire, and the sprinkler system activated.

The hotel's insurance company now wants Grimes to pay $1.83 million.

Attorneys for Grimes and Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. are set to argue the case in front of a jury Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

After picking that date Friday, however, attorneys declined to comment on the lawsuit. Grimes, of Pasadena, Md., could not be reached for comment.

In court documents, Grimes denied the fire was caused in the manner alleged, and further denied any act of negligence or breach of any duty on her part.

The lawsuit, filed March 21, stems from Grimes' visit May 9, 2015, to Virginia Beach. The lawsuit claimed she was staying in Room 718 at the Candlewood Suites, 4437 Bonney Road.

That hotel does not have a Room 718, though. Officials with the Virginia Beach Fire Department said there was a fire that day next door at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 4453 Bonney Road.

Candlewood Suites staff described the eight-floor Crowne Plaza as their "sister property."

According to a fire department spokesman, the Crowne Plaza fire was reported about 6:15 p.m. on the hotel's seventh floor and extinguished quickly after a firefighter placed the microwave under one of the building's sprinkler heads.

Art Kohn Jr. said the origin of the fire was "most likely the microwave oven inside the room," but he stressed that investigators were never able to determine a cause.

"Nothing other than the plug to the microwave and receptacle in the cabinet housing the microwave suffered heat damage," Kohn said.

He said the building suffered "severe water damage" on floors one through seven.

The lawsuit claimed Grimes left an "operating microwave oven" unattended in the room for unspecified reasons. It said the microwave was operating for an "indefinite amount of time" before a fire resulted and the hotel's sprinkler system activated.

Kohn said "partially cooked food" was found in the microwave. But, he said, a woman staying in the room with three children said she was "100% sure that everything in the room was off" before they left to run errands.

The woman acknowledged that one of the girls had been microwaving lasagna before they left, Kohn said. He added that the room's electrical panel box had been thrown to the off position.

The insurance company ultimately was required to pay the hotel's owner, Landmark Hotel Group, over $1.83 million to cover the damages, court documents said. The company now wants Grimes to pay it back.

The lawsuit claims that Grimes, who lives in a 1,650-square-foot split-level home in the suburbs of Baltimore, owed the hotel "a duty to refrain from engaging in behavior that would pose a risk of harm to the safety of persons or property." Among other things, it alleged she failed to operate the microwave in a "reasonably safe manner."

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