Motel Fire on Hwy 192 near Animal Kingdom Lodge

[Whazzup]

This fire was still burning this morning (Monday).

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/loc ... 5801.story

[Shorty82]

Last I heard the fire was still burning (or at least smoldering) and that fire fighters thought it could burn for days. I heard it was so bad they gave up fighting it directly, instead they worked to contain it and prevent the fire from spreading.

On my way to work this morning I saw the huge plume of smoke and I understand there was still a plume at 11:00, over 12 hours after the fire started. This afternoon the wind changed and we started smelling smoke inside the park.

I heard that five different fire departments responded to the fire, Orange, Osceola, Polk and Lake Counties as well as Reedy Creek Fire Department and the guy in the video said Orlando Fire was there too.

I understand this was an old hotel and I bet it barely met code when it was built, let alone code today. Rumor has it they are investigating it as arson. There's nothing left of the building but rubble, it burned to the ground.

A lot of people have been displaced by this, people with no place to go. Thankfully there were only a few injuries and they were minor.

[February]

Last night on 60 Minutes they reran a story I saw earlier in the year that really haunted me about the "Motel Generation", school-aged kids that are growing up in these motels. Some have come there after living in their cars a long while, one girl about eleven recounted having to park their van in the WalMart parking lot and go into the bathroom to brush teeth and 'wash up'.

It's so heartbreaking to see any child (or person, period) in such a situation, but to see children homeless like that, and so close to the Happiest Place on Earth...it's just not right :( Keeps me up nights--not just because I'm very lucky that I still have a couple options because otherwise I'd be in the same situation trying to live on what passes for 'disability' income in this country.

Thinking of any child going to bed hungry, so close to such beautiful hotels and where there are so many children so spoiled that they don't appreciate something like a trip to WDW...just kills me. I found myself thinking, wondering, how many of the local kids have never even seen the Magic Kingdom.

Sorry for the little rant there- been on my mind all day and seeing the news of this fire just brings home how important these issues are and I hope that everyone that was displaced by this fire will be helped to find somewhere new to live.

bru

[Zazu]

Last night on 60 Minutes they reran a story I saw earlier in the year that really haunted me about the "Motel Generation", school-aged kids that are growing up in these motels. ....

... seeing the news of this fire just brings home how important these issues are and I hope that everyone that was displaced by this fire will be helped to find somewhere new to live.

The good news, if there is any here, is that there are plenty of such half-empty small motels in and around Kissimmee for these folks to move to. They're all hurting in this economy, and as Harold Rosen says, "Nobody ever made any money out of an empty hotel room." Red Cross is set up to give them some basics, and another marginal home isn't going to be too far down the road.

[Goofyernmost]

Those Meth Labs can be dangerous things, but so can financially strapped hotel owners. It's a crap shoot on this one.

[Whazzup]

Interesting that 2 weeks previously a series of videos appeared on Youtube about the deplorable living conditions at the motel, showing garbage piled up, broken doors, etc. Meth lab? Insurance? Arson? I'm sure they'll know eventually.

[Big Wallaby]

I just went with a couple of friends to the IHOP across the street. it is obviously still burning.

[Goofyernmost]

I'm having a hard time picturing the exact location of this. I think I know where the Black Angus Steak house is, but I'm thinking of the place that used to be the Hawaiian Theme Econo Lodge from a few years back. Is that the place? If it is...I have stayed there. It was about 8 years ago and it was pretty old then.

[Shorty82]

I'm having a hard time picturing the exact location of this. I think I know where the Black Angus Steak house is, but I'm thinking of the place that used to be the Hawaiian Theme Econo Lodge from a few years back. Is that the place? If it is...I have stayed there. It was about 8 years ago and it was pretty old then.

I don't know what it was before it became a Vacation Lodge but I know the hotel was old and poorly designed.

Originally built for the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair, the motel was dismantled and trucked in mobile-home-size modular units to Osceola County in 1983 to house tourists visiting Walt Disney World. The units were laid out in three two-story rows more than 200 yards long and covering 220,000 square feet, according to interviews and property-appraiser records.

Building codes in the early 1980s did not require fire walls to stop the spread of blazes in motels and apartments, and this structure didn't have any.

The Vacation Lodge Maingate units were bolted together around a honeycomb of airspaces separating every room.

During the fire, those airspaces, along with crawl spaces and wide-open attics, sucked in oxygen-rich air to fuel the flames, they said.

"It's like putting a chimney between every room," said Capt. Bernie Kleinschmidt, head of a team of nine state fire marshal investigators assigned to the probe.

From the Orlando Sentinel.

In addition to the poor design the basic fire safety systems the hotel did have (sprinklers and smoke detectors) didn't work. The county found six fire-code violations during an inspection on June 2. News reports I've seen said the company had a track record of poor maintenance, including just capping off sparking outlets instead of fixing them properly.

I wouldn't be surprised if a meth lab was the cause. One thing I saw said an explosion was heard in the room where the fire started, could've been a meth lab going up. I've heard meth labs have been busted by police all up and down 192 in the past.

I'm willing to bet investigators will determine the cause to be either arson or a meth lab. Then again, those are pretty much the same thing seeing how a meth lab is just a major fire waiting to happen.

[Goofyernmost]

I don't know what it was before it became a Vacation Lodge but I know the hotel was old and poorly designed.


From the Orlando Sentinel.

In addition to the poor design the basic fire safety systems the hotel did have (sprinklers and smoke detectors) didn't work. The county found six fire-code violations during an inspection on June 2. News reports I've seen said the company had a track record of poor maintenance, including just capping off sparking outlets instead of fixing them properly.

I wouldn't be surprised if a meth lab was the cause. One thing I saw said an explosion was heard in the room where the fire started, could've been a meth lab going up. I've heard meth labs have been busted by police all up and down 192 in the past.

I'm willing to bet investigators will determine the cause to be either arson or a meth lab. Then again, those are pretty much the same thing seeing how a meth lab is just a major fire waiting to happen.

I will be interested in finding out more but from the description it does sound like the place. When I was there it was strictly tourists housing but I was amazed at how old it seemed to be. The three super long rows of rooms is the key to my memory cause I seem to remember thinking how odd that configuration was.