Cops: Still no motive for motel arson

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Arson investigators spent Monday morning asking questions of a suspect who turned himself in after police said he started a blaze that destroyed a South Austin Motel.

Meanwhile, guests at the America's Best Value Inn along the I-35 frontage road in South Austin said they did not hear alarms inside the building, though officials said the hotel had passed all of its previous fire-safety inspections.

Mohammed Amine Lahlou is charged with first-degree arson, and while questions remain about his motives, many of his alleged victims feel lucky to be alive.

Investigators say Lahlou called 9-1-1 from a cell phone in Downtown Austin near 3rd and Bowie Street around 6 p.m. on Sunday, hours after the fire, and confessed to the crime. Authorities had already identified him as a suspect, noting that the fire had started in Room 303 - where Lahlou was the only registered occupant.

According to an affidavit, Lahlou admitted he had started the fire using "paper, cloth, and a cigarette lighter." He said that he piled the materials in between the two beds in his room and set them on fire, the affidavit said.

Battalion Chief and Lead Arson Investigator Aaron Wolverton said Lahlou had returned to the country recently through New York after having been in Morocco, but officials were not sure when he came back.

He had been in Austin staying at an International Hostel in Downtown Austin for two weeks before he had checked in to the America's Best Value Inn.

Lahlou graduated from St. Edwards University with a bachelor's degree in either 1999 or 2000 Wolverton said.

Wolverton said Lahlou has not given investigators a reason why he set the fire, though he did say it is not terrorism related.

"We'll continue to follow up on the leads regarding his phone calls he made [after the fire] to try to help establish a motive," Wolverton said. "Right now we just believe it was a person that was emotionally disturbed acted out."

Shortly after noon Sunday, reports came in about the large fire at America's Best Value Inn at 2525 South I-35 near Oltorf Street .

"We would be dead. We would have heard nothing," said Rebecca Castanon, who was vacationing with her two sisters from El Paso. "The people going through the hallways saved our lives."

Castanon said she did not hear any smoke detectors in her room and did not hear the fire alarm until someone opened the door.

Moe Patel, the owner of America's Best Value Inn for 11 years, said he had monthly fire alarm checks and said the alarm system did work.

When the building was permitted to be built in 1984, city codes required a fire alarm system but no sprinkler system.

As of its last inspection on June 27, 2009, the building did have a fire alarm system and smoke alarms in every room, fire officials said Monday.

From the last four years of fire inspections at the motel, according to the fire department:

• June 2005 (Inspection done, nothing found)
• June 2007 (Inspection done, nothing found)
• June 4th, 2008 (Inspection done, nothing found)
• June 27th, 2009 (Inspection done-only issue was a problem with the swimming pool gate. It was corrected on a re-inspection).
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Asked why he had not put a sprinkler system in the building after requirements for new buildings in 1988, Patel said it would have been too complicated with an older building.

Patel said the building is insured and was seen trying to write down claims of people who may have lost items inside the building Monday morning.

Other guests recalled their frightening experiences.

"We saw smoke in the hallways," said Neo Lucio, a motel guest who was checking out when the fire alarms went off. "The maids and the custodians were running around. They're trying to get people out. People were already throwing stuff out the windows - coffee pots breaking the windows. I guess they couldn't breathe. Within five- to 10 minutes, it got out of control."

The three-alarm fire raged through the third floor of the motel, sending smoke and flames billowing into the sky.

"I fell asleep at the pool, and I woke up to a woman screaming to get out the window," said Lisa Scott, a motel guest who is visiting Austin from New York.

An off-duty firefighter was the first on the scene, and he pulled off the first rescue.

Eventually, 23 fire crews would get there around noon. They pulled four people from the building.

"The firefighters on the inside of the building fought very hard," said Austin firefighter Elizabeth Donelson. "A very hot and very intense fire."

Heat and smoke were so intense, fire crews had to retreat outside and fight the fire defensively as bright orange flames ripped through guest rooms.

One person did go to the hospital without life-threatening injuries.

Firefighters told KXAN three of the four people pulled from the motel refused treatment.

Damage is estimated at $1.5 million, and the focus narrows in Monday on exactly why suspect Mohamed Lahlou started the fire.

If convicted of this crime, Lahlou could spend between five and 99 years