People jump from windows to flee South Carolina motel fire

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Fire broke out in a five-story motel early Sunday while guests were asleep, killing six and forcing others to leap from windows or climb down bed sheets to safety, authorities said.

At least a dozen people were injured, including at least five being treated Sunday at a burn unit in Augusta, Ga.

The Comfort Inn had standpipes and wall-mounted hoses in the hallways and stairwells, but none had been activated and no fire extinguishers were used before emergency crews arrived, said Wade Hampton Fire Chief Gary Downey. He didn't know the last time the building was inspected but said it was not required to have sprinklers.

"If there had been sprinkler systems in the hallways, probably the fatalities and injuries would not have been near what they were," Downey said.

The blaze began about 4 a.m. on the third floor. The cause was under investigation.

Greenville County Sheriff's Sgt. Shea Smith said deputies arrived before firefighters and ran into the building to evacuate people, but they couldn't get past the second floor because of the smoke.

"The people that came out of their rooms, they didn't have much of a chance," Downey said. "They get the smoke filled in there, and they panic, and panic takes over for them."

Downey said some people on upper floors tried to lower themselves to the ground using bed sheets and others jumped from the windows.

"I came out after the fire alarm went off the second time and there was smoke everywhere, like you couldn't even see in the hallway," Taran Hurley, who was staying on the fourth floor, told WYFF-TV. "There was fire right outside the window, coming up the wall. There was smoke in the exit ... and you couldn't go down, you couldn't go up. It was just like choking smoke."

"Everybody had wet towels, and we just kind of ran for it down the stairs. We all fell, we tumbled over each other, but we got out that way," Hurley said.

All the victims appeared to have been sleeping when the fire started, Greenville County Coroner Parks Evans said.

A young boy was found dead close to the body of a woman, and two women were found in the third floor hall, Evans said. A man and a woman were found dead in separate rooms on the third floor, he said.

Broken glass littered the motel yard Sunday as inspectors searched through the burned third floor, where windows had been broken out. With sleet falling, firefighters had been able to quickly extinguish the blaze.

Greenville, the home of Bob Jones University, is about 105 miles northwest of Columbia. A Democratic presidential candidate debate is scheduled in the city this week.