Woman critically hurt in Moon motel fire
Firefighters pulled a woman from a burning motel Thursday morning in Moon as other guests jumped or scrambled down bedsheets hastily tied to second-floor balcony railings.
"I woke up and heard people banging on doors, screaming 'Get out! There's a fire!'" said Eddie Lawhorn, 47, of Huntsville, Ala., who was in town auditioning for 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' "I opened my door and there was a lot of smoke in the hall. I grabbed some clothes and ran out."
Gina Elis Martinez, 48, was badly burned in the fire, which started about 3 a.m. in the Rodeside Inn, an extended-stay motel on University Boulevard, authorities said. She was in critical condition at Mercy Hospital's Birmingham Trauma and Burn Center, Uptown, a hospital spokeswoman said.
No one else was seriously hurt, police said. Some people drove themselves to nearby Sewickley Valley Hospital, police said.
Martinez collapsed in a first-floor stairwell while trying to escape, authorities said. She lives on the top floor of the two-story structure, above the first-floor linen closet where the fire broke out, authorities said.
Allegheny County arson investigators had not determined the cause. Four to five rooms were destroyed. The remainder of the motel sustained smoke and water damage. Fifty-three rooms were occupied.
Sara Lubecki, who lives at the motel with her boyfriend, woke up just after 3 a.m. and walked into a hallway thick with smoke.
"There was a guy banging on the door with a fire extinguisher trying to put it out before it got worse, but the smoke was just pouring out," Lubecki said.
Lubecki said several fire exits were locked or not working properly, but building manager Gavesh Vaidya disputed that claim.
Don Brucker, chief deputy of the county Fire Marshal's Office, said authorities so far had found no problems with the fire exits.
The fire blew out the sliding-glass doors in several rooms and destroyed most of those rooms' interiors. The flames melted plastic balcony railings and started to burn into second-floor rooms.
"The concrete made it like a blast furnace in there," Brucker said.
Lubecki claimed more than $500 was stolen from her purse, which she had left in her room. A police search of the firefighters who brought the purse out of the building found no money, Moon police Chief Leo McCarthy said. Moon fire Chief Charlie Belgie disputed Lubecki's claim.
McCarthy said police found marijuana and suspected methamphetamines in Lubecki's room.
"We have to consider any allegation of theft, but right now we have no evidence that a theft happened," McCarthy said.
