Most of the Fairmont Southampton guests interviewed were unaware that a pungent blaze had started at the hotel's sewage treatment plant yesterday.

However, a couple from New York City said they were upset to hear about the possibility of noxious fumes interrupting their vacation.

"It's not good," Karen Smith of New York City said. "The hotel should have been up front and posted something. The Marriott would have done that. There could have been noxious fumes," she said. They could have evacuated the building."

Mrs. Smith said Fairmont staff told them the problem with the air conditioning was "temporary" and would soon be fixed "but it had been a while".

"There is still no air conditioning in the hotel," she said.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith were in their room after returning from the beach when they saw the smoke.

"We were upstairs and saw the smoke. We asked at the front desk, but they said it was not a problem," she said.

A hotel employee said he heard there had been a explosion at the treatment plant.

And two locals in the hotel after the fire said the "floors were sweating" in the hotel's downstairs level because of warm temperatures inside the building.

Frank Lewis of New York City said he saw the huge plume of thick black smoke from a fishing boat.

"We were in a fishing boat when we saw the smoke. At first I thought it was clouds," Mr. Lewis said. He said one reason more visitors did not see the plume may have been that a rainstorm struck the Island at around the same time yesterday afternoon.

"It was pretty black smoke. But when we came back the fire was out. There was no smell of chlorine," he said. "We could not tell the air conditioning was not working."

Similarly, the Orlando family from New Jersey said they had no idea there had been a blaze on the hotel property.

"We did not smell anything. It was no big deal. We just hope it stays sunny. We are going to the beach," they said before getting on a hotel shuttle to Whaler Inn.