When the fire broke out, the Gujarati family had been in their room, and had phoned the Econo Lodge motel's front desk for help, saying that they could not get out.

When the fire broke out, the Gujarati family had been in their room, and had phoned the Econo Lodge motel's front desk for help, saying that they could not get out.

When the fire broke out, the Gujarati family had been in their room, and had phoned the Econo Lodge motel's front desk for help, saying that they could not get out.

A Gujarati family of three was burnt to death in a deadly fire at an Ohio motel in the early hours of Wednesday (local time).

Described as a "five-alarm" fire due to the complexity and size of the blaze at the Econo Lodge motel, it was finally brought under control after an hour-long effort from 15 fire departments and approximately 70 firefighters.

The Wayne County Coroner's Office later identified the three victims as Hiteshkumar Suthar, who worked at the motel, his wife Hinaben, and their 20-year-old daughter, Ishani.

The family, all natives of Nadiad in Gujarat's Kheda district, had settled in the US about two years ago.

What we know about the fire so far

Fire tenders were first called to the motel at about 1:30 AM EDT on Wednesday (11:00 AM IST on Thursday).

A while earlier, when the fire broke out, the family had reportedly been in their room, and had phoned the motel's front desk for help, saying that they could not get out as the flames spread.

The three then took refuge in the bathroom after being told over the phone to turn on the water supply in the bathroom for safety reasons.

"Our first arriving engine arrived on scene with heavy flames through the roof and made several rescue attempts to try to reach the people in that room. Efforts were unsuccessful," said Wooster Township Fire Chief Dallas Terrell.

As a result, the cause of death of the family is currently attributed to smoke inhalation as the flames could not be controlled on time.

"Running, there was screaming, there was families devastated ... I think the owner or the person that was running it was on his knees crying," said Keira Curry, a guest at the motel, told WKYC.

However, the Wooster Township Fire Department, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, and the State Fire Marshals Office are also currently investigating if there was any foul play behind how the fire began, and why the family had not been able to escape from their room.

Their bodies are being transported to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner for a postmortem report, which will shed more light on the fire probe.

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