Atlantic City Motel Blaze

ATLANTIC CITY - Atlantic City officials responded to a fire at the Knights Inn motel on Sunday morning.

A police sergeant, an off duty volunteer firefighter and a motel employee were the first on the scene.

Fire Chief Dennis Brooks of the Atlantic City Fire Department explains "Very close to the fire area most of the occupants were.....Continue Reading 

sleep.  They started on the bottom floors alerting the residents and worked their way closer to the fire."

Knights Inn Maintenance man Felix Lopez responded to the scene, "The guest was there and I seen them trying to get out the door.  A lot of black smoke coming out; Ran over and ran up there to try to use a fire extinguisher, but the fire was spreading real fast, so we decided to start pulling everybody out."

The two–story blaze injured two guests, a man and a woman, both suffering minor burns and smoke inhalation.  They were treated at the scene and the two children with them at the time were unharmed.

The fire badly damaged three guest rooms and caused approximately 150 thousand dollars in damages.  At the time of the fire 15 out of the 20 units were occupied.

"We were upstairs maybe 6 doors down from where it actually happened," said motel guest Ivory Harris.

"This morning we were smelling something that smelled like something that was burning.  We figured it had something to do with the heater since the place was pretty rundown and we walked out and we're shocked to see that half the hotel was burned down," explained motel guests Michael and Jennifer Levy.

The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation.

"We should know shortly cause we're going to rule out any other factors or the obvious factors right away and then get into the more complicated matters," said Chief Brooks.

The American Red Cross Southern Shore Chapter was contacted and provided baby formula and diapers to the families displaced by the fire.