Dozens of Katrina Evacuees Displaced by Fire in Houston

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Hotel Fire Displaces Dozens Of Hurricane Evacuees
Cause Remains Under Investigation

POSTED: 7:56 am CST December 14, 2005
UPDATED: 8:05 am CST December 14, 2005

KATY, Texas -- About 70 people, half of whom were evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, have been displaced after a fire swept through a Katy hotel.

Everyone safely escaped from the Best Western on Interstate 10 at Cinnamon Drive after the fire began Tuesday shortly after 7 p.m., fire officials said. They said that two hotel residents were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, but there were no reported injuries.

"I've been here for two months, and we're watching everything we have go up in smoke," said Paul Marshall, who moved to the hotel when Hurricane Rita destroyed his home in Lumberton. "It didn't even look like it (the fire) was a big deal. All of a sudden, it ballooned to this."

Marshall and another evacuee helped warn residents about the fire.

"She took one side of the hotel, and I took another -- banging on the doors and trying to get everybody out," Marshall said.



Best Western, Interstate 10 at Cinnamon Drive, Katy


Hotel resident Gilbert James lost his Mississippi home during Hurricane Katrina.

"Everything is in my room except for what I've got on," James said as he stood barefoot outside a restaurant next to the hotel while firefighters battled the blaze.

The hurricane victims said they don't have any money and don't know what to do because most government agencies feel they should already have a permanent place to stay.

"I feel like someone is kicking me in the teeth, because every time you start to take one step forward, you get kicked two steps back because, I mean, unfortunately we lost everything," Marshall said.

Several victims of the fire were sent to a nearby Motel 6. Many of them lost everything in the blaze.

Six fire departments worked together to get the blaze under control.

Harris County arson investigators were at the scene. Fire officials doubted the building could be salvaged.

"It's not going to be habitable -- it's gone," said Assistant Chief Alex Mandy with the West I-10 Fire Department.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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These people must feel like bad luck is chasing them!!!

[southerngale]

These people must feel like bad luck is chasing them!!!

No kidding...unbelievable.
After losing everything except what I'm assuming they evacuated with, now they lose that. I'm sure it was all of their important papers, pictures, etc.