An investigation is underway to determine how a large fire spread through a Kilgore hotel Monday night.
Multiple fire crews were called around 8 p.m. to the Best Western Inn of Kilgore, located on business Hwy 259 near Walmart.
Kilgore Fire Chief Mark Henderson said the fire started in one of the rooms on the west end of the hotel. The hotel manager and passersby who spotted the flames were able to get everyone out of the 42-room two-story hotel unharmed.
Katelynn Moore was driving by the hotel at the time.
“My daughter saw smoke and then she saw flames and said, ‘Mom will you turn around.’ So I pulled in, got out, and just started beating on doors.”
A man staying at the hotel tells us that he smelled smoke, and when he opened the door he was immediately “hit by smoke.” He was able to escape without injury.