No one was seriously injured in the fire, but 16 rooms at the Lexington Hotel Suites were destroyed and 32 other rooms on two lower floors received heavy smoke and water damage.

Fire Maj. Brian Stanaland said firefighters found one room engulfed in flames and fire shooting through the roof when they arrived at 10:40 a.m. He said several things made the fire tough to fight.

''We had about 35- to 40-mile-per-hour winds blowing straight from the north,'' Stanaland said. ''And having to go up three stories makes it more difficult. You've got to pull up more line that way.''

The blaze also caused Thursday night's production of ''My Fair Lady'' at the Civic Center to be canceled because the cast and crew of the national tour were staying in the hotel. The show will go on Friday through Sunday as scheduled.

Libby First, a ''My Fair Lady'' production company spokeswoman, said a few cast and crew members lost all their belongings in the fire.

''The rest of the cast and crew suffered some smoke and water damage to some of their things,'' First said. ''They have already found other hotel accommodations.''

Rudy Ortiz, a bus driver from Albuquerque, N.M., was resting in the room directly beneath the unit where the fire is believed to have started.

''I was just lying down, and all of a sudden I smelled this bad smell, a burning smell,'' said Ortiz, 42, ''Right after that, they started knocking on my door, telling me to get out.''

Stanaland said the hotel's wing was connected to two others by a common attic and there was a danger of the blaze spreading to the rest of the building.

Part of the hotel's ceiling fell on eight firefighters and two received minor burns. A third firefighter was sickened by fumes from burning plastic pipe.

Stanaland said the fire apparently was started by a child playing with either matches or a cigarette lighter.

There was no sprinkler system in the damaged portion of the hotel, he said.