A coal from a tabacco hookah pipe took a spill unto my floor recently. My friend kicked it over by mistake, the coal hit the ground and broke into a million pieces. I was not a happy camper. My hardwood floor is finished light oak I'd say. But now I have these nasty burn circles everywhere. My room mate wants to get a guy here to completely sand down the entire floor. Its not just a money but also all the furniture + he says we would have to stay somewhere else for 3-4 days because of the harsh smell.(?)

Is there any alternatives? The burns dont seem very deep, with the exception of one spot the size of a quarter is extremely deep... that board would need to be replaced completely I imagine. Anyway this is all happening very fast and if there is a healthy altenative, please let me know!!

Is the floor pre-finished ?

It's possible a lot of the burns are too deep. This will warrant numerous boards to be replaced , to perform a successful sanding.
If the floor is pre-finished, you could get away with replacing boards ,without sanding.

"tobacco" hookah, eh?
You could try to carefully scrape out the burns and touch up the stain and finish but this requires a high degree of skill to be successful. Probably it would be best to hire a furniture touch up specialist to evaluate these repairs. It could be a lot cheaper than refinishing. BUT if he says that they will still show, listen to him and bit the bullet on this one and go with refinishing, possible board replacement, and do your smoking on the back patio, lol.