Five kids and their mom die in Michigan motel fire

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sodus Township, USA.- fire that swept through a southwestern Michigan motel early Saturday killed five children and their mother, authorities said.

The Cosmo Extended Stay Motel in Sodus Township was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived shortly after receiving a 1:45 a.m. 911 call, the Berrien County sheriff’s office said. Kiarre Samuel, 26, and five children ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old likely succumbed to smoke inhalation, Chief Deputy Robert Boyce said.

Samuel’s husband and another child survived. All eight were in the same room. “It’s tragic. It tears at your heart,” Boyce said. “Any time you have children, it’s worse. When it’s multiple children, it’s even worse.”

The motel is off Interstate 94 in the southwestern corner of Michigan, roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Chicago. Authorities said 27 rooms were occupied and 90 percent of the property was damaged by smoke, fire or water. Boyce described the two-story motel as a place for people with low incomes to “get back on their feet.”

Eight people were treated for smoke inhalation and released from a hospital. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Samuel’s husband was the father of some of the children who died, Boyce said. “His whole world’s been turned upside down,” the chief deputy said.