Autopsies Show 6 Killed In Motel Fire Died From Smoke Inhalation

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20180728_122811-2

Smoke inhalation is what killed a mother and her five children between the ages of 10 and 2 in a fire at the Cosmo Extended Living Motel in Sodus Township on M-139 just north of I-94 on Saturday. The fire started just before 2 a.m. and has been ruled accidental. Berrien County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Robert Boyce tells us the Michigan State Police Fire Marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found no evidence of accelerants or narcotics manufacturing at the scene

Autopsies done Sunday at Western Michigan University’s Stryker School of Medicine. Boyce said the hotel’s owners are cooperating. The sheriff’s department is working with a security firm to examine the motel’s fire and smoke alarm system. Four people and four first responders were treated and released from Lakeland Medical Center in St. Joseph for smoke inhalation. Police say the husband of the woman who was killed was able to escape with their one-year-old child, and WSJM News is told he was trying to get back in for the rest of the family, but was unable to do so. The victims were on the second floor of the building, with the fire having begun on the first floor.

The victims in the fire were:

Kiarre Curtis, age 26

Marquise Thompson, age 10

Gerome Randolph, age 7

Samuel Curtis, age 5

Savod Curtis, age 4

Avery Curtis, age 2