GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- The panicked rush to escape from an early morning fire in a motel with no sprinklers likely contributed to the deaths of six people, firefighters say.
It took firefighters just 20 minutes to put out the Sunday morning blaze at the five-story Comfort Inn.
But the chaos created when most of the 46 registered guests scrambled for exits instead of staying in their rooms may have led to most of the deaths, Wade Hampton Fire Chief Gary Downey said.
``If they had stayed in their room, from the looks of it right now, possibly some of them would have survived, if they had stayed in their room and put towels under their door like fire prevention asks people to do,'' Downey said. ``The people who came out of the rooms didn't have much of a chance.''
Downey said the building passed its last inspection less than a year ago, and was not required to have sprinklers because of its age. It was built in 1988.
``If there had been sprinkler systems in the hallways, probably the fatalities and injuries would not have been near what they were,'' Downey said.
At least a dozen people were injured, including five in critical condition Sunday at a burn unit in Augusta, Ga. A spokeswoman for the center said a sixth person was to be flown there when weather cleared.
Of the six victims, four were found in a hallway on the third floor where the fire started. The other two were found in different rooms. A 15-month-old boy was among the dead.
The smoke overcame the victims so quickly that at least two appeared to have fallen as they were walking or running down the hall, some of them disoriented and moving toward where the fire was most intense, Coroner Parks Evans said. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
Smoke filled the motel quickly, sending patrons in their pajamas into a frenzied dash for the exits and the cold rain outside, guests and authorities said.
``I opened the door and all we saw was smoke,'' said Donessa Wilson, who said she and her boyfriend were awakened on the fourth floor by a fire alarm and then heard a woman running down the hall screaming.
The smoke was so thick that one guest jumped from a third-floor window onto a solid canopy when the stairwell was just a few steps away, Evans said. Blood could be seen on the outside walls of the motel near a broken window.
The motel 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, Downey said.
All the bodies were found on the third floor. Those of Jaden Damarion Cromer, 15 months, and his mother, Melba Lashawn Canty, 21, of Taylors, were found in the hallway, as were Allison Lorraine Barfield, 19, of North Augusta, and Jessica Lane Hamby, 19, of Conover, N.C. The bodies of Matthew Greene, 26, of Greenwood, and Donna Lea Swaim, 36, of Conover, N.C., were found in separate rooms, Evans said.
Some guests on the third floor were able to escape. Terry Letterman of Spruce Pine, N.C., and a co-worker and his young daughter tied bedsheets together and climbed out the window.
``I wasn't scared,'' Letterman said. ``I didn't have time to be scared.''
One of the victims taken to the burn center was Zachary Cromer, the father of the toddler who died. Evans said Cromer broke a window and jumped about 20 feet to a solid overhang, The Greenville News reported.
The father was in a different room from the boy and his mother.
Cromer, 23, of Greenville, has severe smoke inhalation injuries and numerous cuts on his left thigh, feet, and right arm said his surgeon, Zaheed Hassan.
Greenville, the home of Bob Jones University, is about 105 miles northwest of Columbia.
Related:
