The Southwest Inn fire in

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on May 31, 2013 was a fire in an Indian restaurant that spread to an adjoining hotel. The fire claimed the biggest casualty loss for the

Houston Fire Department City of Houston Fire Department (HFD) is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Houston, Texas, United States, the fourth largest city in the United States. HFD is responsible for preserving life and ...

since its inception. Four firefighters were killed and 13 others were injured that day while fighting the five-alarm fire at the Southwest Inn located in

Southwest Houston Southwest Houston is a region in Houston, Texas, United States. The area is considered to be from Texas State Highway 6, south of Westpark Tollway to north of U.S. Route 90. Many Section 8 (housing) complexes are located in Southwest Houston. Hu ...

. "It was the department's worst loss of life ever." On March 7, 2017, Captain Bill Dowling, who lost both his legs battling the fire in 2013, died of complications (

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

cellulitis Cellulitis is usually a bacterial infection involving the inner layers of the skin. It specifically affects the dermis and subcutaneous fat. Signs and symptoms include an area of redness which increases in size over a few days. The borders of t ...

) from his line-of-duty injuries."HFD hero 'Iron Bill' Dowling has died", by Keri Blakinger and Brooke A. Lewis, ''The Houston Chronicle''
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Southwest Inn

The Southwest Inn was located in the

Greater Sharpstown Southwest Management District, formerly Greater Sharpstown Management District, is a district in Houston, Texas, United States. The district is split into 6 neighborhoods: Sharpstown, Chinatown, Mahatma Gandhi District/Little India, Westwood, H ...

district of Southwest Houston,Map Major Roads
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Greater Sharpstown Management District. Retrieved on August 15, 2009 along a portion of

Interstate 69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

" Southwest Freeway".Deadly Houston fire investigated
" ''

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'' at the ''

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''. June 1, 2013. Retrieved on June 6, 2013. The hotel was previously called the Roadrunner Inn. It was owned by Criterium Systems, Incorporated, a company in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. An Indian resurant called "Bhojan" was attached to the hotel.Pinkerton, James, Dale Lezon, and Mike Tolson.
Massive blaze in SW Houston kills 4 firefighters
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. May 31, 2013. Retrieved on June 6, 2013. The restaurant described itself as a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

-style

thali Thali (meaning "plate"), Bhojanam (meaning "full meal") or Chakluk is a round platter used to serve food in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Thali is also used to refer to an Indian-style meal made up of a selection of various di ...

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

restaurant. The hotel could hold up to 100 guests. Some people used the hotel as a

rooming house A rooming house, also called a "multi-tenant house", is a "dwelling with multiple rooms rented out individually", in which the tenants share kitchen and often bathroom facilities. Rooming houses are often used as housing for low-income people, as ...

and stayed there for months at a time.Southwest Inn patrons displaced after deadly
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KTRK-TV KTRK-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Bissonnet Street ...

''. Friday May 31, 2013. Retrieved on June 6, 2013. Since 2009, according to fire inspection records, the hotel had received citations for issues in the overall fire alarm system: broken smoke detectors in several rooms, issues with fire suppression systems, expired permits, and obstructed exits. In 2011 HFD's database stated that the hotel was "in compliance" with regulations. In 2012 additional citations appeared on the HFD database. City of Houston inspectors had also cited the restaurant for violations. The restaurant's most recent citation was in March 2013 for failure to clean grease traps. On May 8, 2013, the final inspection of the hotel property stated there was "no action required."

Fire

The fire was first reported at 12:09 PM CST on May 31, 2013 in the Bhojan Indian restaurant, during its lunch service. At the time of the fire, 45 guests were registered at the hotel. The front desk clerk and another hotel employee began knocking on doors and windows in the hotel, alerting customers that there was a fire and they needed to evacuate. Twenty HFD vehicles arrived at the scene with lights flashing, including fire trucks and ambulances. The four fatalities occurred twelve minutes after the arrival of the first engine, when the roof collapsed.Arnold, Robert.
Local 2 Investigates: Southwest Inn's troubled past
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Retrieved on June 6, 2013. The hotel's roof had collapsed in the course of the fire.U.S. investigates deadly Houston hotel fire
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Archive

TVC News TVC News is a Nigerian news 24 hour television news channel based in Lagos. The channel airs on British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (BSKYb) in the UK, Naspers Ltd. (NPN)'s DStv and Startimes in Nigeria, and Multi TV in Ghana. Former CEO Nigel P ...

, TV Continental. June 2, 2013. Retrieved on June 11, 2013. Firefighters, believing that people were trapped inside, entered the building. Two of the deceased were from Station 51 and two were from Station 68. The fire also caused injuries to 14 additional firefighters; one fell into a coma and another required leg

amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...

. The four firefighters who died in 2013 were Robert Bebee, Robert Garner, Matthew Renaud, and Anne Sullivan.

Aftermath

The four bodies were taken via ambulances to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science. Once autopsies were completed, they were taken to local funeral homes. The fire was investigated by the HFD, with assistance from the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevent ...

(ATF). A total of 50 investigators from city, state, and federal agencies helped. The long-term patrons at the Southwest Inn were displaced by the fire. The area Plainfield Inn donated rentals of twenty rooms for their short-term recovery stays. The memorial services for the deceased were scheduled to be held at

Reliant Stadium NRG Stadium, formerly Reliant Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to have a retrac ...

on Wednesday June 5, 2013. Captain William 'Iron Bill' Dowling, who had lost both legs in the roof collapse, died on March 7, 2017, from complications related to his injuries from the fire. A memorial service was held on March 15, 2017. In June 2015 the

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the C ...

(NIOSH) released their final report and found eight contributing factors to the death of the firefighters, including: * Fire burning unreported for three hours * Delayed notification to the fire department * Building construction * Wind impacted fire * Scene size-up * Personnel accountability * Fire ground communications * Lack of fire sprinkler system Anne McCormick Sullivan Elementary School, in the Riverstone community and in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

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, was named after one of the firefighters. It is a part of the

Fort Bend Independent School District The Fort Bend Independent School District, also known as Fort Bend ISD or FBISD, is a school district system in the U.S. state of Texas based in the city of Sugar Land. The district spans covering almost all of the city of Sugar Land, the city ...

. In 2018 a lawyer accused

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of being responsible for mistakes in the radio network and that they contributed to the deaths. Families of the four firefighters immediately killed filed a lawsuit against Motorola. In 2019 the wife of Dowling filed a lawsuit against Motorola.

References

External links

*
Bhojan Vegetarian Restaurant

Bhojan Indian Restaurant
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Station 68 Website
Final reports:
4 Career Fire Fighters Killed and 16 Fire Fighters Injured at Commercial Structure Fire-Texas
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- July 15, 2015
Investigation FFF FY 13-08
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Texas Department of Insurance The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) regulates insurers and other companies that conduct insurance business in Texas, and assists Texas-based insurance consumers. TDI was founded in 1876 as the Department of Insurance, Statistics and History. ...

{{Southwest Management District 2013 fires in the United States 2013 in Houston Fires in Texas Hotel fires in the United States May 2013 events in the United States Restaurant fires Building collapses in 2013 Building collapses in the United States Building collapses caused by fire

Southwest Inn

Fire

Aftermath

References

Further reading

External links