Motel Room Catches Fire, Man Found Dead

Washington County crime scene investigators  prepare to enter unit 120 of the Hi-Way Inn Motel on College Avenue in Fayetteville Thursday afternoon after a man was found dead after a fire in the unit.  A cleaning woman discovered the fire when she opened the door and saw black smoke billowing out, with the man on the bed and the mattress on fire.  The death will be handled as a homicide until investigators can rule out that possibility.

Washington County crime scene investigators prepare to enter unit 120 of the Hi-Way Inn Motel on College Avenue in Fayetteville Thursday afternoon after a man was found dead after a fire in the unit. A cleaning woman discovered the fire when she opened the door and saw black smoke billowing out, with the man on the bed and the mattress on fire. The death will be handled as a homicide until investigators can rule out that possibility.

Friday, January 10, 2014

FAYETTEVILLE — A man died in a motel room that caught fire Thursday.

Police and firefighters were sent at 11:39 a.m. to the Hi-Way Inn Motel, 1140 N. College Ave.

Sgt. Craig Stout, a spokesman for the Fayetteville Police Department, said a man was found dead inside Room 120.

At A Glance

Fatal Fires

• The last fatal fire in Washington County happened June 5 when lightning struck the home of 86-year-old Billie Marie Kidd. The home was on Kate Smith Street in Lincoln.

• In Benton County, 84-year-old Eva Simpson died July 30 in a house fire at 5801 Arkansas 94. A short circuit in a hallway between the kitchen and a bedroom started the fire.

• A home at 24692 Cherokee Road in northern Benton County burned to the ground in March. Joyce Boyle, who was in her mid-70s, died in the fire that started in the chimney of a wood-burning stove.

Source: Staff Report

Authorities wouldn't release the man’s identity pending notification of family, Stout said.

A cleaning woman discovered the fire when she opened the door and black smoke billowed out, and she saw the man on the bed and the mattress on fire, Stout said.

“We will treat this as a homicide until we prove otherwise,” he said.

Stout said investigators don’t suspect foul play, but that the department investigates all unattended deaths as homicides.

Stout said the fire was contained to one room. No one else was injured.

Rogers Morris, Washington County coroner, said the man’s body will be sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for identification and to determine his cause of death.

“They’ll be able to tell us if he died before or after the fire,” Morris said.

Stout said investigators don’t know where the man is from because he had driver’s licenses from Arkansas and Louisiana.

Stout said investigators hadn’t been able to reach his family as of Thursday evening.

“Since he’s from out of state, this could be a long, drawn-out process,” Stout said.

Fire Battalion Chief Mauro Campos said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

He said the motel room had “mostly smoke damage.”

“The only fire damage was to the mattress,” Campos said.

Campos said he couldn’t remember the last fire fatality in Fayetteville.

He said police arrived at the scene first and used extinguishers to put out the mattress fire.

The Hi-Way Inn Motel is behind Cafe Rue Orleans.

The motel was built in 1950 and bought by the Hari Krupa Corp. in 2005, according to Washington County property records.

The manager of the 24-unit motel said the business was taking reservations Thursday afternoon. She declined to comment on the fire.

Maudie Schmitt, Cafe Rue Orleans owner, said the man who died in the fire had been staying at the inn for a few days.

“He came over the other night and wanted us to deliver food from the restaurant to his room,” she said.

Savannah Morris, a waitress at the restaurant, said no customers were inside the restaurant during the incident.

“I didn’t see anything until the fire trucks showed up,” Morris said. “I didn’t smell smoke either.”

Morris said the restaurant stayed open during normal business hours Thursday, though access was temporarily blocked by fire trucks.

“We didn’t do much for lunch with all the fire trucks in the parking lot, but as soon as they left our usual lunch crowd came in,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt said clientele at the Hi-Way Inn varies, depending on the time of year.

“There have been rumors that it’s a crack motel, but it’s not,” she said. “The owners are very nice and they keep it clean. It’s no Clarion, but you can get a room for $42 a night.”

Schmitt said the motel attracts college students during Razorback football games, construction workers and vendors during the War Eagle Craft Festival.

Schmitt said Cafe Rue Orleans has been in business for 13 years.

“We’ve seen people who’ve lived in that motel for years,” she said. “It’s what they call home.”

About three motel rooms were cordoned off with yellow caution tape Thursday.

Stout said investigators were still processing the scene as of 5 p.m.

“They’re trying to piece everything together,” he said.