Two-Year Old Dies in Colorado Motel Fire

A 2-year-old girl injured in a Colorado Springs motel fire Saturday morning has died, and two siblings and the children’s mother remain hospitalized, police said.

Colorado Springs police Lt. Adrian Vasquez said two boys, ages 4 and 10, are hospitalized with injuries from the fire. The boys and their mother were transferred to Denver-area hospitals; police did not have any condition updates for them.

The three children and their mother were taken to local hospitals in critical condition Saturday morning after a fire in a unit they were living in at the Ranch Motel, 3900 N. Nevada Ave., firefighters said. A man also was treated at a hospital and later released, police said.

Nathaniel Cleveland said he also lives at the motel and saw his sister being resuscitated on the ground after the fire. The three children are his sister’s kids, he said.

The children and their mother were rescued from the same unit at the motel, said Colorado Springs Battalion Chief Tim DeLeon. The unit is in the motel building adjacent to Mount View Lane, on the northwest side of the structure. It is a “walk-out basement level” room, said Capt. Steve Oswald, a fire department spokesman.

DeLeon said the cause of the blaze, reported around 8:20 a.m., is under investigation and that the fire was in one unit. The victims were rescued between 8:27 a.m. and 8:34 a.m., he said.

Fire department chaplains spoke with Cleveland as he waited at the scene for hours, while police and fire investigators questioned him and others. At one point, while speaking on the phone, Cleveland said he had “lost” his niece. “She’s gone,” he said, while crying on the phone.

Cleveland said he knew little about what happened and wanted to go check on his sister, but couldn’t as he waited for more questioning.

“I’m just looking for answers,” he said.

James Yoo, the son of the owner of the motel, said residents sometimes stay for a day or for a longer period of time. There are 21 units at the motel, he said. Yoo’s father was also on scene and walking around the property.

Other residents and witnesses to the fire declined to talk on the record about what they saw. One man said he saw black smoke at the unit, ran to the doorway and called for the residents to crawl out. He got no response, he said.

The man said that the people who live in the motel are close.

“This is our family,” he said.

Colorado Springs police investigators and officers also were on scene.

None of the 34 firefighters who responded to the scene were injured in the blaze, DeLeon said.