CLARKSVILLE, Ark. — Viewers sent in videos and pictures from the start of the fire sending up smoke that could be seen for miles.
“I’ve never seen it…it was like you could tell it was over with. With the flames coming out, they had two dormers that were starting to collapse,” said hotel guest, Gary Hamilton.
A couple from Texas had just checked in moments before the fire erupted through the hotel.
“Firemen come through and pounded on our door and I opened it and he says get out now it’s on fire,” said Juanita Van Norman.
Juanita Van Norman and her husband stay in this hotel every time they visit Clarksville and she says she’s never seen anything like this before.
“They also helped me run back in and get all of my things and our medicine in stuff, my insulin and it was scary,” Norman recalled.
The motel guests were very grateful the fire department helped them evacuate safely and put out the fire as quickly as they could.
“The firefighters…they did a hell of a job,” Hamilton said.
“We just got out, but I couldn’t have done it without the firemen’s help and getting him out because there’s not a ramp over there….so he got him in a safe spot and then helped me,” said Van Norman.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. We also learned tonight from the Clarksville police department, that a local family with two small children had to evacuate during the fire and lost their car seats.
Safe Haven and the Pregnancy Help Clinic stepped up to donate two new seats to the family. The department also says Walmart donated water for firefighters and police officers on the scene working today.