Mother, kids die in motel inferno

A FIRE that swept through a southwestern Michigan motel early on 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 911 call at 1.45am, the Berrien County sheriff’s office said.

Kiarre Curtis, 26, and five children ranging in age from two to 10 years old likely succumbed to smoke inhalation.

Mrs Curtis’s husband and a one-year-old child survived. All eight were in the same room.

“It’s tragic. It tears at your heart,” chief deputy Robert

Boyce said.

“Any time you have children, it’s worse. When it’s multiple children, it’s even worse.”

The motel is in the southwestern corner of Michigan, roughly 160km from Chicago.

Authorities said 27 rooms were occupied and 90 per cent of the property was damaged by smoke, fire or water.

Mr Boyce described the two-storey 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 hospital.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Mrs Curtis’s husband, Samuel, was father to some of the children who died, Mr Boyce said.

A motel resident, Sarah Sanders, said she fled after a friend shouted at her to get out.

“By the time we get outside, the end of the building exploded,” Ms Sanders told the South Bend Tribune. “The glass shattered out and there was a big whoosh of flame.”

Another resident, Robert Payne, said the fire started just a few doors from his room.

He said he liked the children and sometimes gave them money for candy.

“They never talked back; perfect,” Mr Payne said. “It

IT’S TRAGIC. IT TEARS AT YOUR HEART. ANY TIME YOU HAVE CHILDREN, IT’S WORSE. WHEN IT’S MULTIPLE CHILDREN, IT’S EVEN WORSE CHIEF DEPUTY ROBERT BOYCE

breaks my heart that I ain’t going to see them no more.”

Meanwhile, two young children and their 70-year-old great-grandmother have died in the wildfire that is sweeping northern California with devastating speed.

The fire has forced 38,000 residents to flee their homes, razed 500 buildings and killed five people – three civilians and two firefighters.

US President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency and a tearful Sherry Bledsoe confirmed the deaths of her grandmother, Melody Bledsoe, and her children, James, 5, and Emily Roberts, 4, in the city of Redding.