Three members of a family from Gujarat were killed in a massive fire that broke out at a motel called Econo Lodge in Ohio in the United States. The coroner’s office said that victims included a couple and their 20-year-old daughter.
Eyewitnesses just heard a loud explosion after which flames and smoke started shooting out from the motel.
The victims were identified as Hiteshbhai Suthar, his wife, Hinaben, and their 20-year-old daughter, Ishani. They were trapped inside a room in the motel, a fire official told news agency Associated Press.
The family, originally from Nadiad in Gujarat’s Kheda district, had moved to the United States about two years ago and had been living at the Econo Lodge motel where Hitesh was employed.
All three of the victims worked in the area. Hinaben worked at a neighbouring property, and the daughter worked at a McDonald’s just across the street.
A motel employee told WEWS-TV in Cleveland that a man who was trapped inside the room called the front desk and said they could not get out.
According to the news channel, Suthar pleaded with the front desk to send help.
April Graser, an employee at the hotel, told News 5 that she started her normal overnight shift until the alarm went off.
“The guy that stayed in 121 came running to the door and told me to call 911; there was a fire,” said Graser.
Graser further said that she heard the family screaming and crying.
“He was begging me to get help because they were trapped in the building, they couldn’t get out of their apartment, and I heard her crying, I heard them all screaming and crying,” she said.
“They’re going to be missed really deeply, all of them, and I want to tell the family that they were loved and that we were just a big family. We got along, everybody, all of us loved each other,” said Graser.
The firefighters had come when the flames were already shooting through the motel’s roof, and they attempted several times to reach the people who were trapped, Wooster Township Fire Chief Dallas Terrell said.
“We saw multiple units on fire, fire through the roof, made multiple rescue attempts, and unfortunately, those were unsuccessful, and there are confirmed three deceased occupants from the motel,” a senior fire official told ABC News.
Images showed heavy damage to a back, detached section of the Econo Lodge in Wooster, which is about 96 kilometres south of Cleveland.
The cause of the fire has not yet been established. Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
