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Sugar Creek, MO —
A fire that began slowly grew into a slow-moving monster Friday afternoon at the Comfort Inn in Blue Springs, chewing its way across the top floor over the course of three hours and displacing several occupants.
Cameletta Parks, manager of the hotel, said she was at her usual location on the first floor at about 3 p.m. when she smelled smoke. When she saw it, she and another employee, Tony Stolfa, began their patient journey from room to room, knocking on doors as loud as they could. They called 911.
In some cases, they had to wake people up. Most left quickly; others were confused and took a little time.
“It was pretty scary,” Parks said from outside the hotel, where dozens of people drifted over to watch and take pictures, seemingly oblivious to the already suffocating heat of the day.
There were some reports that a man refused to come out of the building and that police were attempting to remove him, but that couldn’t be confirmed. Parks said that wasn’t true.
“No, they all left,” she said, looking at the building she has managed since March. “It’s sad.”
Nineteen rooms were occupied in the 70-room hotel when the fire broke out, Parks said.
“It’s a light weekend,” she said, sighing with relief. “Thank goodness.”
By 4:30 p.m., with smoke rolling out of the top floor, the flames started small, inching into sight, licking at the corners of the building.
Eddie Saffell, assistant chief for the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District, said firefighters had arrived on scene and went inside the building. One area caught their attention and they pushed through to examine it, but the fire inside got the air it needed and grew.
“It’s staying in the top, in the attic spaces,” Saffell said. “It’s getting hot now.”
Most of the occupants rested under one of the many trees on the property, watching the fire do its work. Eventually a school bus arrived on scene and shuttled them to another Comfort Inn in Grain Valley, Parks said.
“They just want to get back in air conditioning,” she said.
Firefighters from Independence and Lee’s Summit arrived on scene, and while small flames grew into larger ones, rising high and sending plumes of black smoke in the sky, more ladders reached into the sky. Independence firefighters atop a ladder and bucket could be seen changing into masks as the smoke enveloped them – great billowing clouds of black smoke that drifted north and across Missouri 7.
A fire that began slowly grew into a slow-moving monster Friday afternoon at the Comfort Inn in Blue Springs, chewing its way across the top floor over the course of three hours and displacing several occupants.
Cameletta Parks, manager of the hotel, said she was at her usual location on the first floor at about 3 p.m. when she smelled smoke. When she saw it, she and another employee, Tony Stolfa, began their patient journey from room to room, knocking on doors as loud as they could. They called 911.
In some cases, they had to wake people up. Most left quickly; others were confused and took a little time.
“It was pretty scary,” Parks said from outside the hotel, where dozens of people drifted over to watch and take pictures, seemingly oblivious to the already suffocating heat of the day.
There were some reports that a man refused to come out of the building and that police were attempting to remove him, but that couldn’t be confirmed. Parks said that wasn’t true.
“No, they all left,” she said, looking at the building she has managed since March. “It’s sad.”
Nineteen rooms were occupied in the 70-room hotel when the fire broke out, Parks said.
“It’s a light weekend,” she said, sighing with relief. “Thank goodness.”
By 4:30 p.m., with smoke rolling out of the top floor, the flames started small, inching into sight, licking at the corners of the building.
Eddie Saffell, assistant chief for the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District, said firefighters had arrived on scene and went inside the building. One area caught their attention and they pushed through to examine it, but the fire inside got the air it needed and grew.
“It’s staying in the top, in the attic spaces,” Saffell said. “It’s getting hot now.”
Most of the occupants rested under one of the many trees on the property, watching the fire do its work. Eventually a school bus arrived on scene and shuttled them to another Comfort Inn in Grain Valley, Parks said.
“They just want to get back in air conditioning,” she said.
Firefighters from Independence and Lee’s Summit arrived on scene, and while small flames grew into larger ones, rising high and sending plumes of black smoke in the sky, more ladders reached into the sky. Independence firefighters atop a ladder and bucket could be seen changing into masks as the smoke enveloped them – great billowing clouds of black smoke that drifted north and across Missouri 7.
Nearby, behind the hotel, another pumper sent a huge arc of water onto the grass. Saffell said three small grass fires started during an apartment building fire on July 4, which displaced about 20 families at Autumn Place Apartment Homes in Blue Springs.
The cause of that fire could not be determined.
“It’s been a rough week,” Saffell said.
Later, Parks said that some of those staying at the hotel were people whose apartments were destroyed at Autumn Place on Wednesday.
“But they left (before this fire),” she said.
Preliminary reports show that the hotel fire may have started in a small exterior area above the main doors of the hotel, but that’s not certain, Saffell said. A more intense examination would be required to determine that.
As the afternoon descended into early evening, more water and drinks were brought in for firefighters from nearby Price Chopper. Two managers could be seen lugging over large blue buckets full of beverages and the firefighters chugged quickly.
Because of the heat, firefighters would rotate in shifts; doing so would require additional departments on scene, he said.
Reports that a police officer had been injured while assisting could not be confirmed.
Meanwhile, the flames continued their meal across the roof. Saffell said the hotel was struck by lightning a number of years ago, but that fire and subsequent damage was nothing like this. As the water from three elevated hoses soaked the building, the parking lot slowly filled with water.
And the crowd of onlookers looked on, folding their arms, raising them with cameras in their hand.
“I remember when the lightning hit it,” one man said. “Nothing like this, though. Bad day for it.”
