ATHENS – A fire in a luxury hotel that injured three people in the Greek capital was likely the result of arson, fire investigators said, with a report they found evidence of an accelerant on the first and second floors.

The blaze started in a guest room on the first floor of the Athenaeum Palace hotel on Syngrou Avenue with one of those hospitalized having to be intubated, Kathimerini said in a report that said firefighters had to use high-rise ladders to rescue people from upper floors.

The fire department said it sent 35 firefighters with 12 vehicles, who managed to bring the fire under partial control shortly after it broke out with smoke coming out of at least two side windows on upper floors of the seven-story hotel.

One of those rescued via ladder was reportedly a cleaning woman while authorities said 20 people were taken out of the hotel safely with no reports how many were in the facility when the fire began.

Others came out of side entrances, some covered with blankets, and were checked by paramedics in ambulances waiting nearby. Fire crews went room-to-room inside the hotel to ensure nobody remained inside.

“We could smell the smoke and we got out. I don’t know what happened to the people on the higher floors,” Israeli hotel guest Tzila Cohen said. “I saw that they rescued a cleaning lady with the ladder. I hope everyone is okay.”

Paladium Hotel in downtown Athens. (Photo by Eurokinissi/ Yiannis Panagopoulos)

(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report)