Woman seriously burned in Kennewick motel fire

Published 2:09 pm Monday, February 6, 2012

KENNEWICK — Investigators say a woman who was seriously burned in a Kennewick motel fire had been drinking and smoking in bed.

The fire early Sunday was confined to a single room on the third floor of the Cedars Inn and Suites. The 71-year-old Yakima woman was taken to a Richland hospital and then flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Sprinklers put out the fire. About 120 other motel residents were evacuated to another motel.

The Tri-City Herald reported that police had been called to the same room Saturday night because three young children were unsupervised because their mother and their grandmother — the 71-year-old woman — were intoxicated. The mother was arrested and the children were removed by Child Protective Services.