Meridian Township firefighters investigate a fire that occurred at Super 8 Motel, 2736 E. Grand River Ave., and spread to four rooms. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
A small fire that scorched four rooms at the Super 8 Motel, 2736 E. Grand River Ave., caused the partial shutdown of Grand River Avenue for about an hour Monday.
Nobody was hurt in the fire that burned the second floor of the motel at about 2:30 p.m.
Flames filled the four rooms and sent smoke billowing out through roof vents and the floor balcony as Meridian Township and East Lansing firefighters worked to put out the blaze.
Meridian Township Fire Department Battalion Chief Jeff Stillman said the cause of the fire is not immediately known, but it is believed that the fire began in one of the rooms’ attic.
“We got the initial call as flames and smoke coming through the roof,” Stillman said. “When I arrived, there was nothing but smoke, but flames did eventually come through.”
Stillman said firefighters surveyed the building to evacuate occupants once they arrived on the scene.
“The only people that were occupied in the building were on the back side, but we did pull up and have a guy on the roof,” Stillman said. “I told him to get away because he was near the fire area.”
Grand River Avenue between North Hagadorn Road and Park Lake Road was closed going both ways between 2:15 and 3:30 p.m. while firefighters extinguished and investigated the blaze.
Colorado resident Latisha Scott was in her motel room on the other side of the building when firefighters bludgeoned her door and ushered her out of her room.
“I was told to get out of the building,” Scott said. “And when I walked to the front, I saw flames coming out of the building. That’s when I’ve seen fire and rescue spraying the building, kind of maintaining the fire, keeping it in one area.
“After a while, they just started knocking out windows and tearing the place apart.”
Haslett resident Onnette Mitchell had been staying with her daughter at the Super 8 Motel while she waited to receive keys to her apartment. Her room was one of the four touched by flames.
“I got a phone call from the manager, who was yelling, ‘The building’s on fire,’” Mitchell said. “There was no alarm, no water sprinklers, nothing like that.”
Stillman said he did not hear a fire alarm go off when he arrived on the scene.
He added that the fire department will be looking into whether there was any negligence on the part of the motel since fire alarms were not immediately activated.
If the fire started in the attic, alarms may not have been triggered because smoke hadn’t yet traveled down into the rooms, Stillman said.
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