A small restaurant fire turned into a five-alarm blaze that killed four Houston firefighters and injured 13 others Friday, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Reports state three male and one female firefighter died after the burning roof of the Southwest Inn collapsed.
Three bodies were found in the burned rubble and one died at a hospital, according to news reports
Friday's fire is the worst loss the fire department has ever seen.
"We arrived on the scene and about 14 minutes after our arrival we had a mayday," Houston Fire Department Chief Terry Garrison told the Chronicle.
Garrison did not release the names of the dead until the families were notified.
Those killed extinguishing the blaze were:
Capt. EMT Matthew Renaud, 35, of Station 51.
Engineer Operator EMT Robert Bebee, 41, of Station 51.
Firefighter EMT Robert Garner, 29, of Station 68.
Probationary Firefighter Anne Sullivan, 24, of Station 68.
Two injured firefighters are hospitalized in critical condition, and three others suffered either chest pains or leg injuries, told Jessica Michan, a spokeswoman for Mayor Annise Parker, told USA Today.
Multiple reports say 13 firefighters total were taken to local hospitals with injuries.
A karaoke bar and motel adjacent to the restaurant also burned in the blaze.
The fire took more than 100 firefighters three hours to extinguish. The temperature from the blaze, factoring in the humidity, was about 95 degrees, causing dehydration in some of the firefighters.
The fire was reported at 12:09 at the Bhojan Restaurant, a vegetarian Indian cafe attached to the Southwest Inn.
The front desk clerk at Southwest Inn, Martha Lopez, told the Chronicle a restaurant employee ran into the motel saying that a fire had started.
Lopez and the employee immediately began evacuations, knocking on doors and windows to tell the 45 registered guests to get out of the hotel.
Sammy Sewell, 29, was a guest of the motel for the past six months. He was leaving his room when he heard yelling and loud screams.
"Next thing you know, it was 'boom!' It scared the crap out of me," Sewell told the Chronicle. "I mean, it sounded like a cannon going off. That's how loud it was. I could have sworn it picked this building up and put it back down."
An ATF task force will lead in the investigation to find out what started the blaze.
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