By Ben Fractenberg
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN WEST — Broadway-area businesses tried to return to normal on Wednesday a day after an underground fire and multiple explosions rocked 52nd Street and sent hundreds fleeing into the street.
The block between Broadway and Eighth Avenue was still closed to traffic on Wednesday as guests returned to the hotel across from the blast site.
The Novotel Hotel, with its entrance about 10 feet from where the explosions happened, reopened around 6 a.m. Wednesday after guests were forced to evacuate due to dangerously high carbon monoxide levels stemming from the fire.
“We stayed for six hours on the pavement,” said 35-year-old Sandra Guillaume, who arrived at the hotel from France on Tuesday afternoon but was evacuated soon thereafter. “Then they sent us to the Holiday Inn.”
Guests were forced to relocate to several hotels across the city, including the San Carlos Hotel on East 50th Street, the Holiday Inn at West 39th Street and the Brooklyn Marriott.
Edward Marmet, who is also visiting from France, said Wednesday he was in the hotel when the fire started.
“I was in the restaurant when I heard the fire trucks, and I looked down and saw the fire,” said the 52-year-old, who was relocated with his daughter to the San Carlos. “I was not afraid, just got little goose bumps.”
But not everyone in the area was quite back on their feet.
The Times Square Church, with its entrance on 51st Street a block south of the blast site, had a sign in its door announcing services had been cancelled Wednesday night.
The hit Broadway show “Jersey Boys,” which is playing at the August Wilson Theatre on 52nd Street, will resume its 2 p.m. matinee after cancelling a show Tuesday night.
Back at the hotel, Novotel workers greeted wary guests as they returned this morning with luggage in tow.
“We’re a big hotel,” said one employee. “It was pretty chaotic.
