January 22, 2010 - 8:23 AM



Fire Started in Illegal Worker's Room
Reported by: Anna Donaldson
Last Update: 1:28 am


They were trapped in room 292. On Saturday night, four young ladies did what anyone else would do desperate to escape that flames that quickly surrounded them.

They called 911.

"The girls tell the dispatcher at 8:12pm we hear water," explains Jim Cavanaugh, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the ATF's Nashville Field Division.

It was coming from fire engine one.

A witness who escaped the blaze heard them fighting for help.

"He then heard the girls banging in 292 back up there," says Cavanaugh.

They also called their moms.

"When the girls were on the phone with their mother, they did tell one of their family members that the roof was falling in on them," according to Cavanaugh.

The ATF and state fire marshal determined the blaze started in room 268, a room on the end of the lower level of the complex. It's where the Days Inn's maintenance man of several years lived: 55 year old Dhirajlal Bhagat of India who had been working illegally in Hoover since 2007. He worked legally from 2005 to 2007. However, his renewal work authorization card was denied two and a half years ago.

Officials say Bhagat is Hindu and left incense burning in his room after a prayer.

When returning to discover the fire, Bhagat told officials he grabbed an extinguisher to use, but it malfunctioned.

The witness who escaped from the room next door told officials he could hear Bhagat trying to fight the fire with the extinguisher.

Bhagat went to two rooms before finding a phone that worked to call the front desk to notify them of the fire. Bhagat then went upstairs where the young ladies were to fight the blaze with another extinguisher, but at that point it was too late.

State Fire Marshal Ed Paulk says the wind was pushing the flames rapidly across the hotel and in doing so 'blocked the exit to 292.'

The Days Inn had no sprinklers. It wasn't a requirement of building code back in 1964 when the hotel was built. Older buildings like the Days Inn were also made of combustible materials which exacerbate such a blaze.

According to Cavanaugh, there were many stubborn factors that led to the fatalities. One is the decision of Bhagat to initially fight the blaze, instead of immediately calling 911. Cavanaugh said those were precious moments wasted that could have been used to get sufficient help to the scene more quickly.

"If you change any one event...window at the back of the room, cement deck, sprinkler, no wind, the hotel not on a high hill where the firemen could get to it fast, the hydrant closer. Change any one event, the girls would be alive."

Bhagat was taken into custody Thursday by immigration officers. He is currently being held in the Hoover City Jail. Cavanaugh says he will not be charged in the fire because after their investigation, officials could not find any evidence of intent to set the blaze.

The official cause of the blaze is still listed as undetermined. Through further investigation, Paulk says his team will recreate the fire and perform tests on incense to determine if that was the exact cause.

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